Rescuers had been in contact with the woman for some time, but it took hours to reach her. A first attempt to dig a tunnel had to be abandoned for safety reasons. She has since been taken to hospital. The search for other victims is expected to continue through the night in the rubble.
Walls collapsed
Rescuers must exercise caution in that search. There are fears that the roof could come down as walls collapsed from the explosion. “The stability of the building is not good. But it is important that we move forward as quickly as possible to find any victims,” said Mayor Paul Van Miert, according to broadcaster VRT. “We have to take away piece by piece, piece by piece.”
The building partially collapsed due to the explosion around 08:15 this morning. A 28-year-old local resident said he heard a huge bang. “We looked out the window, but only saw rocks and metal flying around. It looked like we were in a war.”
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Police say ten people lived in the destroyed part of the building. It proved difficult to determine exactly how many people were buried. Authorities previously spoke of eight missing persons, but this subsequently became unclear. Some residents turned out not to be at home, but others may have had visitors. At least one injured person was quickly rescued and taken to hospital.
Preferably no fireworks
The mayor asked residents to spend as little time as possible with fireworks during the New Year’s Eve festivities. “Not only for the serenity after this disaster, but also not to overload the emergency services who are very busy here.”
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