In Brief
- The bodies of an American couple visiting Greece were pulled Saturday from an Athens building.
- Four other people are missing.
Two people have died and another four are missing after a residential building collapsed following an explosion in a tourist area of central Athens, a Greek fire brigade official said on Saturday.
The blast on Saturday destroyed a two-storey building in Plaka, near some of Athens' most visited sites including the Acropolis and the Temple of Zeus, injuring three people, damaging nearby houses, shops and cars and sending rubble and broken glass as far as three blocks away.
Emergency crews in heavy gear and red helmets assisted by rescue dogs were looking for an elderly couple who lived in one apartment and four tourists who were staying in another.
They found the bodies of a man and a young woman on Saturday as they removed debris from the building which was reduced to a mess of twisted metal, shattered tiles and concrete slabs, the fire brigade official said.
Household items and clothing were strewn amid the debris.
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"It (the rescue operation) is not easy as the biggest part of the building has collapsed and there is risk for adjacent buildings which have been evacuated for security reasons," police spokeswoman Constantina Dimoglidou told public broadcaster ERT on Saturday.
The tourists — two American couples — were expected to check out to catch a flight from Athens airport at 3 PM on Friday but didn't show up, a police source said.
It was not immediately clear what caused the blast in an area which is home to many hotels and short-term rentals. Athens mayor Haris Doukas said it was likely linked to gas infrastructure.
"Something went terribly wrong."
He said that two nearby buildings were left in a dangerous state, with inspections under way "to determine if they can remain standing or if they also have to be demolished".
Some 30 rescuers and three sniffer dogs were at work at the site of the incident, Greece's ANA news agency reported.
A specialised fire team investigating the cause of the blast was still at the scene, it said.
A year ago, locals in the Plaka neighbourhood had warned the city and utility companies about the risk of gas leaks or short circuits, according to a letter by the residents' association published by the Kathimerini newspaper.
The residents had urged a fire drill to identify possible weaknesses in the emergency response plans for the district.
The neighbourhood is one of Athens's most popular tourist areas. The nearby Acropolis, one of Greece's best-known landmarks, welcomed 4.6 million visitors last year.
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