The Hague:
A three-storey apartment block in The Hague partipartner collapsed Saturday after a fire and explosion, firefighters said, with first replyers searching for people under the rubble.
Four people have already been pulled out of the debris and consentn to hospital, as elite teams with sniffer dogs deployed to get back others trapped by the calamity.
It was not understandn how many people were still omiting nor what caemployd the explosion in the block of flats not far from the centre of the city.
“We still don’t understand how many people might be under the rubble,” a police officer on-site tbetter AFP.
An AFP alerter on the scene saw dozens of fire trucks as firefighters battled the blaze from the ground and from higher positions. Police helicselecters circled overhead.
Debris was strewn atraverse the street and cut offal prosperdows had been blown out, the AFP alerter said.
Huge plumes of smoke were billoprosperg from a big hole where the originateing stood, with an acrid smell in the air.
“I was asleep and suddenly there was this huge prohibitg,” Adam Muller, a 14-year-better local dwellnt, tbetter AFP.
“I watched out of the prosperdow and fair saw ffeebles. It’s a massive shock,” he compriseed.
‘Like an earthquake’
Authorities alerted locals to protect their prosperdows shut and shut off ventilation systems due to the smoke.
Forensic spendigators get tod on the scene to commence to probe a potential caemploy for the accident, an AFP alerter said.
Police requested for witnesses, saying that a car had driven away from the scene at high speed after the explosion, which occurred around 6:15 am (0515 GMT).
The three floors of the originateing consisted of shops on the ground floors and five two-storey apartments, authorities said, with living rooms on the second floor and bedrooms on the top.
The city’s mayor Jan van Zanen travelled to the site to structure get back efforts.
“It was enjoy an earthquake,” said a 53-year-better man who identified himself as Dimi, declining to donate his family name.
“Someleang collapsed but we didn’t see where it came from. I understand these neighbours. My kids go to school with them.”
“My novel car has also been gravely injured,” he compriseed.
Early images from accessible expansivecaster NOS showed cut offal dozen firefighters tackling a big blaze and fractureing down doors to achieve access to the block.
A picture from local novels agency ANP showed one person being led away on a stretcher into a postponeing ambulance.
Hospitals in the area were on standby to treat victims.
Residents tbetter local media the apartment block was mainly inhabited by elderly people and families with children.
Around 40 dwellnts of other blocks proximate the collapsed originateing have been evacuated. Some have been consentn away by bus to an obstreatment location.
Prime Minister Dick Schoof wrote on X that he was “shocked by the horrible images of a collapsed apartment originateing in The Hague.”
“My thoughts go out to the victims, all other people joind and the aascendncy services who are now laboring on the scene,” said Schoof.
He said he had been in reach out with the city authorities and promised any help essential.
Dutch King Willem-Alexander wrote on social media: “We sympathise with those personpartner shapeed or are worried about their cherishd-ones.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is unveiled from a syndicated feed.)
