At least two people died and several were injured in Madrid on Wednesday when a church-owned building partially collapsed in a major explosion believed to be caused by a gas leak, reports said.
“It looks like there was a gas explosion in the building,” Mayor José Luis Martinez-Almeida told reporters at the site, where hundreds of rescue workers filled the streets with rubble.
He told Telemadrid that two people were killed in the blast, which officials later said had injured at least eight people, one seriously.
“At least four floors were affected by the explosion in the Calle Toledo building,” emergency services said.
“The priests who live on the fifth and sixth floors are doing well. We are trying to locate a volunteer who works with us, ”Madrid Vicar General Avelino Revilla told Telemadrid, according to Reuters.
A fire that started inside the building on Toledo Street made it more difficult for rescuers and firefighters to look for other possible survivors, the mayor said.
The building provided residential training for priests and provided meals for homeless people, a neighbor told Reuters.
A nearby nursing home was evacuated, although no injuries were reported immediately among residents.
No serious damage was reported at a nearby school, which was initially empty because classes had not yet resumed after a record blizzard in the Spanish capital on 9 January.
The mayor later said that there were some people there, but that they only suffered “scratches”.
Leire Reparaz, who lives near Puerto de Toledo, a local landmark, said he heard a strong explosion.
“We didn’t know where the sound came from. We all thought it was from school. We went up 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.
Videos and images posted on social media showed a cloud of smoke coming out of the building.
“The noise was very loud, very loud, in fact,” Lorenzo Fomento, a 43-year-old Italian salesman who in a nearby apartment, told Agence France-Presse by phone.
“I’ve never heard anything so loud before,” he added.
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