Utrecht, Netherlands, Jan 15 (Reuters) – A gas leak triggered a powerful explosion in the central Dutch city of Utrecht on Thursday, destroying several homes and injuring four people, local authorities said.
Utrecht Mayor Sharon Dixma told reporters that no one suffered life-threatening injuries. “There was a lot of damage, several buildings collapsed,” she said.
Dixma added that emergency crews were continuing to search the rubble as a precaution, but there were no reports of missing people.
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The owner of the house was outside when the explosion occurred at around 3:30 pm local time (1430 GMT) in the densely populated center of the Netherlands’ fourth-largest city.
It took firefighters about six hours to get the blaze under control.
Dixma said it was unclear what caused the gas leak, but added foul play was not suspected.
(Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten, Marta Fiorin and Bart Meijer; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Diane Craft)
