After the house collapsed in Hemer, Sauerland, as a result of an explosion, two people were rescued from the rubble on Saturday night.
Rescue workers initially provided medical care to a man and a woman on site and then wanted to take both to a clinic, the police said early Saturday morning.
A third person was said to be under the rubble.
Emergency services could not initially contact her.
Two injured people had already been recovered on Friday evening.
One of the victims was in the hospital with serious injuries, the other person was reportedly only slightly injured.
The man was lying high up on the rubble mountain.
Three of the eight residents of the house were probably not at home at the time of the collapse.
Aerial photos show a debris field where an apartment building previously stood.
The salvage operation is a race against time.
With heavy equipment in the form of excavators and cranes, the rubble has to be carefully cleared away piece by piece.
The house is said to have been a six-party house.
"Unfortunately, it collapsed completely, there is no stone left standing," said fire brigade spokesman Andreas Schulte.
The exact cause of the explosion is initially unclear - but the police and fire brigade assume it was a gas explosion.
The area around the scene of the accident was cordoned off.
The detonation shattered windows on neighboring houses.
A structural engineer must now clarify how much the houses have gotten.
That's how long they stayed evacuated, a police spokeswoman said.
Hemer is a town with 34,000 inhabitants in the Märkisches Kreis in Sauerland.
It is the eastern neighboring town of Iserlohn.