MADRID: An explosion gutted a bar in Madrid on Saturday injuring 25 people, three of them seriously, Spanish authorities said, while ruling out more victims being trapped under rubble.
Firefighters were clearing debris at the premises in the capital's Vallecas neighbourhood, Madrid emergency services announced on X, sharing footage of the bar's partially collapsed ceiling and bricks strewn on the ground.
Doors had been ripped off their hinges, with shards of glass scattered on the road outside, while first responders whisked away a victim on a stretcher.
“We were at home and we felt the explosion, we ran out straightaway... it was absolute chaos, people in the middle trying to move cars,“ witness Fernando Sanchez told public broadcaster RTVE from his home.
Fire engines, ambulances and police officers were swarming around the area and the authorities were preventing residents from venturing outside, Sanchez said.
Spanish media reported that a gas leak triggered the blast.
But Inmaculada Sanz, an official responsible for security and emergencies at Madrid town hall, said it was “too early to venture what may have been the cause”.
The civil protection and medical services treated 25 people, with three of them in a “serious” and two in a “potentially serious” condition, the emergency services said.
Sniffer dogs and drones were being deployed to support the response, they added.
Sanz told reporters that “we rule out there being any person trapped”.
The residents of nine homes that formed part of the destabilised building “will have to be rehoused for at least a few days”, she added - AFP
