MADRID (AP) – A powerful gas explosion exploded on Wednesday in a residential building in central Madrid, killing at least three people and tearing the facade of the structure.
A smoke tower rose from the building, where a gas boiler was being repaired, and spilled onto Toledo Street, near the city center. Aerial images shared by the Spanish National Police showed debris covering a nearby yard – although the mayor of Madrid said no one was seriously injured at school.
At least eight people were injured in the blast, one seriously, the Madrid emergency service said in a tweet. And a technician working on the boiler is missing, according to the Spanish government’s representative for the Madrid region, José Manuel Franco, who confirmed the three dead.
A ground police spokesman told reporters that firefighters were trying to put out a small fire inside the damaged building before they could bring search dogs and special rescue teams to look for possible survivors.
An Associated Press reporter saw emergency workers take two bodies away from the area, one that firefighters covered with a blue blanket and another wrapped in emergency reflective sheets.
The building belongs to the nearby La Paloma Catholic Parish and has housed offices and apartments for some of its priests, Madrid’s Archbishop Carlos Osoro told Spanish public broadcaster TVE, which confirmed that none of the clergy were among the victims.
Emy Lee Grau, a resident of the area who was watching TV in a building across the street, said the moment of the explosion was “terrifying”.
“Everything shook, we felt the roof fall on us. We were horrified when we saw the amount of smoke coming out of the church building, “the 20-year-old from Madrid told the Associated Press.
A nearby nursing home was evacuated and no injuries were initially reported, Madrid Mayor José Luis Martínez Almeida told reporters on the ground. The 55 residents of the house were initially taken to a hotel across the street and later sent to other care homes, officials said.
Martínez Almeida also said that some minor damage was identified in a nearby school, where he said that the people only suffered “scratches”.
Neighborhood resident Leire Reparaz said she heard the explosion and was not immediately sure where it was coming from.
“We all thought it was from school. We climbed the stairs to the top of our building and we could see the structure of the building and a lot of gray smoke “, said the 24-year-old.
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Associated Press photographer Paul White contributed to the report.