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28 March 2024

20 injured and two trapped in Belgium apartments explosion

Published
By AFP

Twenty people were injured and at least two feared trapped under rubble after an apparent gas explosion badly damaged two buildings in the Belgian city of Liege, emergency services said.

Two of those injured were said to be in serious condition in hospital.

The blast occurred in a multi-storey apartment building in the historic centre of the city in eastern Belgium. Hours later one of the buildings, of four or five stories, collapsed, according to a journalist at the site. 

“There are 20 injured in hospital, including two seriously,” said Liege police spokeswoman Veronique Baccus. “We are still looking for people in the rubble, though we are not sure who’s there,” she added. “We had oral contact with two people who had not been rescued by the time the front facade collapsed.”

She said until they could verify exactly how many people were in the buildings at the time of the explosion it was impossible to say precisely how many were unaccounted for.

The blast was apparently caused by a domestic gas explosion in one of the buildings, both of which were badly damaged.

 

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