Three dead as gas blast rips through Madrid building

At least three people were killed on Jan. 20 when a huge explosion ripped through a building in Madrid, with officials confirming it was caused by a gas leak.

Images from the scene showed the walls on the top four or five stories of the residential building in the heart of the La Latina neighborhood had been blown out, with vast quantities of debris spreading far and wide.

Government representative Jose Manuel Franco told Spain's public television that the blast occurred as a team of workmen were repairing the building's boiler.

Speaking at the scene, Mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida said an 85-year-old woman had died along with a man whose age was not immediately clear, while the third victim was still "under the rubble".

Bulgaria's foreign ministry announced late on Jan. 20 a 47-year-old Bulgarian man was among those killed.

Another 11 people were injured, one of whom was in serious condition. Church sources told AFP it was a recently-ordained priest.

Despite the force of the blast, no one was hurt in the elderly care home next door, nor in an adjacent school where tonnes of rubble fell into the playground while the children were in lessons, city officials said.
Wednesday was the first day that schools reopened after a nine-day closure due to the heaviest snowfall in Madrid in 50 years.

"This could have been a massive tragedy," said Martinez-Almeida.

Along the street, at least 15 cars were badly damaged by the force of the explosion, which gutted most of the six-storey residential building.

"I was just leaving a nearby clinic when I heard a very big explosion, it was so big I thought it was a bomb," Valentin Moreno, a 48-year-old salesman, told AFP.

"There were people running and a lot of...