Rohrbach an der Ilm: Police investigate connection with apartment fire in Saxony

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The burned-out wreckage of the vehicle in which one of the two bodies was found

Photo: - / dpa

At first glance, there are three accidents - but they seem to be connected in an as yet unexplained way.

A house blows up in Bavaria.

A little later, a nearby car crashes head-on into a truck and catches fire.

At the same time, an empty apartment in Saxony is on fire.

The car is registered to the address of the destroyed house, the person behind the wheel dies.

The investigators also find a body in the remains of the building.

And the apartment belongs to the owners of the exploded house, said a police spokesman.

Two missing people - the two dead?

The background is initially unclear.

The corpses were taken to Munich for forensic medicine, where they are to be autopsied.

It should also be clarified whether the two dead are the two missing residents of the semi-detached house - a 55-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman.

According to investigators, the explosion was probably caused by gas on Thursday afternoon in Rohrbach an der Ilm (Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm district).

This is indicated by the great force of the detonation.

In the accident in Schrobenhausen, 30 kilometers away, the driver of the car crashed into an oncoming truck.

The car caught fire, the person behind the wheel burned beyond recognition, according to the police.

There was a gas bottle in the car.

According to media reports, the fire brigade also found a gas cylinder in the fire in the Saxon town of Lugau.

Around 270 workers in action

Three other people who had lived in the house in Bavaria that exploded were not at home at the time of the explosion.

According to the police, they are not related to the two missing persons.

In the second half of the semi-detached house, which was badly damaged, two people had suffered minor injuries.

The driver of the truck was seriously injured.

After the explosion, around 270 emergency and rescue workers, including sniffer dogs, were on duty. According to estimates by the police, the property damage there is likely to be in the high six-digit range or more.