MADRID: At least three people died and eleven were injured on Wednesday afternoon when a building in central Madrid was blown apart by an explosion, with four of the wounded requiring hospitalisation.
All available evidence pointed to the blast in Calle Toledo, a street leading out from the city centre, being caused by a gas leak, Madrid’s Emergency Services said, although the factors which triggered the leak were yet to be determined.
“It was completely nerve-wracking … I heard and felt the explosion but didn’t know where it came from,” said local Isabel Romero, whose eight-year-old son is a student at a school next to the building where the explosion occurred.
“All of the windows in one of the classrooms shattered and the children were very shaken.”
Firefighters were still on the scene late in the evening, with Madrid’s Emergency services tweeting: “The (building’s) state has yet to be determined … and gas is burning at a controlled rate.”
Electrician David…