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Madrid (AP) - A violent gas explosion in the center of Madrid, not far from the tourist attraction Plaza Mayor, claimed at least three lives - and scared thousands of residents of the Spanish capital.
According to the fire department and the security authorities, the accident occurred on Wednesday afternoon.
The bodies of an 85-year-old woman and two initially unidentified men were recovered, as reported by the Spanish TV broadcaster RTVE and other media, citing spokesmen for the Interior Ministry and the fire department.
The explosion could be heard very loud within several kilometers.
“It was terrible, it was terrible,” stammered an older neighbor with trembling hands in front of TV cameras in an interview with the mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida, who had rushed to the scene of the accident.
Another eyewitness, Lola López, told the TV channel «La Sexta»: «It was like war.
It was like a bomb.
Stones flew around our ears everywhere.
A wall collapsed two meters from us.
We ran away. "
The 37-year-old Rodrigo Verano, who lives not far from the building in the accident, told the newspaper "El País": "Our building shook for 15 seconds."
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As TV pictures showed, the facade of the six-story building at number 98 on Calle de Toledo - about 700 meters south of Plaza Mayor - collapsed almost completely.
It was a residence and office building for priests.
According to the preliminary official findings, there were ten injured and one missing in addition to the three fatalities.
A person was taken to hospital with serious injuries, it said.
According to media reports, residents of neighboring buildings, including a retirement home, were immediately brought to safety.
The accident happened on Wednesday around 3 p.m. due to a gas leak, said the representative of the Spanish Interior Ministry in the Madrid region, José Manuel Franco, in front of journalists.
At the time, maintenance work was carried out on the boiler in the accident building.
The man who carried out this work is still missing.
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The fire brigade, police and emergency services were still on duty with around two dozen vehicles a good three and a half hours after the explosion.
A police helicopter repeatedly flew over the site of the accident.
This remained largely cordoned off due to the risk of collapse.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez tweeted: "Unfortunately we have some deaths to complain about (...)".
Not only the immediate neighbors of the accident building were affected by the explosion.
"The power went out in our house and has not yet returned," told the journalist Fernando Cano, who lives about a kilometer and a half away, the German Press Agency.
"My two children were very frightened, the explosion was very loud here too."
Madrid and the nearly 3.2 million inhabitants of the metropolis simply cannot rest.
In the middle of the pandemic with particularly rapidly increasing numbers, the city and the surrounding region had recently been thrown into chaos for days by extremely unusual snowfall.
The snow, some of which is still on the streets, continues to make everyday life difficult for Madrilenians.
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However, the snow may have prevented an even bigger tragedy on Wednesday.
The playground of a primary school is right next to the disaster building.
After the explosion, it was full of debris.
"Hundreds of children, including my two, would have been there during the game break at that time, had it not been for the snow," a mother told the dpa.
In the school, only one child was slightly injured, who was hit by splinters from a broken window.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210120-99-108140 / 2