Bucharest [Romania], August 28: At least two persons died and dozens more were injured in two successive explosions at a liquid gas fuelling station near the Romanian capital Bucharest.
Fifty-seven people were injured, some of them seriously, in the blasts on Saturday evening in the village of Crevedia, 20km north-west of Bucharest, the Romanian Interior Ministry said on Sunday morning.
The injured included 39 firefighters who went to the scene following the first explosion near the capital Bucharest on Saturday evening.
Shortly after, a second blast sent a mushroom cloud billowing into the sky, rocking the forecourt in Crevedia.
Several people are in critical condition with severe burns, authorities said.
The firefighters were injured in a second explosion as they were helping douse the fire in Crevedia commune, north of the capital, according to the government.The fire brigades managed to extinguish the fire at the petrol station overnight.
The two people who died were a couple, Raed Arafat, the head of Romania's emergency department, told reporters on Sunday.
He said a man had suffered a heart attack, while the woman died after sustaining severe burns.
Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said that at least four patients were likely to be transferred to hospitals in Italy and Belgium.
Hospital representatives said that another eight people suffered severe burns. They sent four people who were injured, including two firefighters, to hospitals abroad
and said others would
follow.
Two police officers and two gendarmes are among the injured.
Authorities do not yet know what caused the blast. Arafat said the station was no longer in use and "did not have a permit to function", according to quotes reported by the Agence France-Presse news agency.
People within a 700-metre (almost half a mile) radius were initially evacuated from the area, with Arafat warning there was a risk of another explosion.
But by mid-morning, the fires had been contained.
Romania's hotnews.ro portal cited Arafat as saying that the station did not have authorization to operate.
Romania's President Klaus Iohannis described the explosions as a "tragedy" and said he was "profoundly saddened" by what had happened.
"An investigation must quickly be launched to see if rules were broken. I ask the authorities to take urgent measures for the injured so that these tragedies won't happen again," he wrote on Facebook.
Source: Qatar Tribune
