Two missing, one seriously injured in Bordeaux building explosion
An 89-year-old was seriously hurt and two other
people are missing after an explosion in a garage in the French city of
Bordeaux on Saturday, firefighters said.
Initial investigations suggest gas was the cause of
the blast, which destroyed the garage as well as two neighboring buildings and
prompted around 50 firefighters to rush to the scene.
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So far nine other people have been identified with
minor injuries following the blast, while the 89-year-old is in a “serious
condition”.
The two missing people are the garage mechanic and
his partner.
“At the moment we’re worried that the number of
victims will rise and that neighboring buildings and those further away could
be weakened and may collapse,” a spokesman for the firefighters said.
While gas supplies to the district have been cut,
“we don’t know yet whether it was the gas network or canisters” that caused the
explosion, said Eric Destarac, a spokesman for gas distribution company Regaz.
Firefighters had recovered some gas bottles from the
garage, he added.
