Gas leak blast demolishes houses in Dutch town of Utrecht, no deaths reported
UTRECHT, Netherlands, Jan 15 (Reuters) – A gas leak triggered a powerful explosion that destroyed several houses in the central Dutch city of Utrecht on Thursday, injuring four people, local officials said.
Utrecht Mayor Sharon Dijksma told reporters that none of the injured were in life-threatening condition. “The damage is extensive, many buildings collapsed,” he said.
Dijksma added that emergency teams continued to search the rubble as a precaution, but there were no reports of missing persons.
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The explosion occurred in the densely populated center of the Netherlands’ fourth-largest city at around 15:30 local time (1430 GMT) while homeowners were out.
It took firefighters about 6 hours to bring the fire under control.
Dijksma added that it is not known what caused the gas leak, but there is no suspicion of foul play.
(Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten, Marta Fiorin and Bart Meijer; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Diane Craft)
