Gas explosion buries fourteen in Austria

Gas explosion buries fourteen in Austria
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

WILHELMSBURG (AUSTRIA), DEC 3: Fourteen people remained buried in the debris of an apartment block destroyed by a gas explosion which killed at least one person in this town west of Vienna, authorities said early today.

Rescue workers with sniffer dogs found no more signs of life in the wreckage and were using excavators to search through the rubble.

Josef Sodar, heading rescuers at the scene of the blast, told AFP: "A maximum of 14 people are under there."

A 45-year-old man was brought out alive but died on the way to hospital. A woman aged 76 was found alive but both her legs had to be amputated and was in serious condition.

Rescue workers who had earlier used their bare hands to tear away the rubble resorted to excavators after midnight.

Johann Wagensommerer, a Red Cross dog-handler, explained: "The building was made of brick, so there are very few cavities" where occupants would have a chance to survive.

Police sealed off the site, lit up by searchlights, as some 250 rescue workersworked in the rain. Red Cross workers set up tents and ambulances stood by.

The three-storey block in the centre of the town, 70 kilometres west of Vienna, contained 15 apartments.

A gendarmerie spokesman said that gas was smelt in the neighbourhood in the afternoon and the building was evacuated along with several others.