Rescue teams work at the site in Wilhelmsburg, Austria, some 50 km from Vienna, of a gas explosion which destroyed an apartment block yesterday. Fourteen people remained buried in the debris of the explosion which killed at least one person, 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.
A 45-year-old man was brought out alive but died on the way to a hospital. A woman aged 76 was found alive but both her legs had to be amputated and she was said to be in serious condition.
Police sealed off the site, which was lit up by searchlights as some 250 rescue workers, including about 40 soldiers, worked in the rain. Red Cross workers set up tents as mechanical shovels lifted big pieces of debris.A gendarmerie spokesman said that gas was smelled in the neighbourhood during the afternoon and that the building which later collapsed was evacuated, along with several others. But, finding nothing suspect, the municipal services allowed those evacuated to return to their apartments, he said. Television reported the explosion occurred some 30 minutes later. Some 50 people lived in the building in 15 apartments.