MADRID (AP) – A powerful gas explosion destroyed a residential building in central Madrid on Wednesday, killing at least three people and tearing off the facade of the structure.
A smoke tower rose from the building, where repairs were being made to a gas boiler, and spread across Toledo Street, near the city center. Aerial footage shared by the Spanish National Police showed debris covering a nearby schoolyard – although the Mayor of Madrid said no one was seriously injured at the school.
At least eight people were injured in the blast, one seriously, the Madrid emergency service said in a tweet. And a technician who worked in the boiler is missing, according to the representative of the Spanish government in the Madrid region, José Manuel Franco, who confirmed the three dead.
A police spokesman at the scene told reporters that firefighters were trying to put out a small fire inside the damaged building before they could bring in search dogs and special rescue workers 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 the other wrapped in reflective emergency sheets.
The building belongs to the neighboring Catholic Parish of La Paloma and housed the offices and apartments of some of its priests, Archbishop of Madrid Carlos Osoro told Spanish public broadcaster TVE, who confirmed that none of the clergy were among the victims.
Emy Lee Grau, a resident of the area who was watching television in a building across the street, said the timing of the explosion was “terrifying”.
“Everything shook, it looked like the roof was falling on us. We were terrified when we saw the amount of smoke coming out of the church building, ”the 20-year-old Madrid resident told the Associated Press.
A nearby nursing home was evacuated and no injuries were reported among residents, Madrid Mayor José Luis Martínez Almeida told reporters at the scene. The home’s 55 residents were initially taken to a hotel across the street and then sent to other nursing homes, officials said.
Martínez Almeida also said that some minor damage was identified at a nearby school, where he said that people suffered no more than “scratches”.
Neighborhood resident Leire Reparaz said she heard the explosion and was not sure where it was coming 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.
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Associated Press photographer Paul White contributed to this report.