Sunday 24 / November / 2024
Bucharest: One person has died and at least 57 others have been injured in two explosions at a gas station near Romanian capital Bucharest, the Romanian Interior Ministry said on Sunday.
The two successive explosions occurred on Saturday at a liquified petroleum station (LPG) in the town of Crevedia, around 25 kilometres (15.5 miles) northwest of downtown Bucharest.
After the first explosion, the fire spread to two fuel tanks and a nearby house.
Authorities then evacuated everyone within a radius of 700 meters (770 yards) and traffic on the main road nearby was blocked, the government's emergency response unit (IGSU) said.
The fire had been contained by Sunday morning.
Among those injured were 39 firefighters, two police officers and two gendarmes, Romania's Interior Ministry said.
Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said that at least four patients were likely to be transferred to hospitals in Italy and Belgium.
Hospital representatives said that another eight people suffered severe burns.
"The area needs to be assessed. The area is still dangerous... There is a risk of another explosion at another tanker," Raed Arafat, state secretary of the Interior Ministry, told the Digi24 broadcaster.
Romania's hotnews.ro portal cited Arafat as saying that the station did not have authorization to operate.
"I'm profoundly saddened that the explosions in Crevedia resulted in victims," President Klaus Iohannis said.
"An investigation must quickly be launched to see if rules were broken. I ask the authorities to take urgent measures for the injured so that these tragedies won't happen again," he added.
