Enlarge image
Blocked off area around the exploded house in Rohrbach / Ilm: The rubble is cleared, the findings sorted
Photo: - / dpa
The bang in the Hopfenweg could be heard in the entire community of 5,000 people in the Upper Bavarian district of Pfaffenhofen.
Since then, there has been no real calm in Rohrbach an der Ilm - even if the local newspaper reports in its live ticker that it was quiet on Sunday morning.
But since the explosion of a semi-detached house on Thursday only more and more questions have arisen - and the investigators are only slowly finding some answers.
An attempt at an overview.
The explosion and its victims
According to an expert from the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office, the house in Rohrbach was probably destroyed due to a gas explosion. A family of three and a married couple lived in the semi-detached house. The family is safe, the three people were lucky and weren't home at the time of the explosion. They were initially housed in a community apartment, reported the »Donaukurier«. However, the family dog's body was found under the rubble.
At the center of the case appears to be the 55-year-old man and 54-year-old woman from the first floor of the house.
Both were initially missing after the explosion.
On Friday afternoon, the emergency services discovered a woman's corpse among the rubble.
The dead woman is the wife, the autopsy of the corpse at the Institute for Forensic Medicine in Munich revealed beyond any doubt.
The car accident on the B300
Shortly after the explosion, there was a fatal accident in Schrobenhausen, 30 kilometers away.
A car had crashed head-on against an oncoming truck.
The vehicle - reportedly a VW bus - was registered to the address of the collapsed house.
According to the »Donaukurier« there was a gas bottle in the car.
The driver of the accident vehicle was burned beyond recognition.
The autopsy could therefore not clarify whether he is the 55-year-old.
The top priority is therefore now the DNA comparison to identify the male corpse, said police spokesman Karl Höpfl on Sunday in Ingolstadt.
Because that could bring important starting points for further investigations.
The trail to Saxony
The fire in an empty apartment in the Saxon town of Lugau is also puzzling on Thursday at lunchtime.
This belonged to the couple from Rohrbach.
The fire broke out in the attic apartment, where media reports say that several canisters with flammable liquid and a gas bottle were found.
Due to the fire and the extinguishing work, the apartments below are uninhabitable.
The residents of the apartment building were not injured.
The police in Chemnitz assume arson.
How are the events related?
The investigators suspect that the three dramatic events are related - in which way is still unclear.
"How it came about, what the background is, that must be revealed by the further investigations," said Höpfl.
He could not confirm speculations about a possible act of relationship.
"From our point of view that is still completely open."
For this reason, the police do not want to comment on how the 54-year-old died - i.e. whether she died in the explosion or was previously dead.
Because that could be perpetrator knowledge, should other people be involved in the case.
How does it go from here?
According to Höpfl, the investigation into the explosion will continue into the next week.
Fire specialists had looked for traces at the scene of the accident and are evaluating them.
The devastating force of the explosion made their work difficult because it destroyed a lot, said Höpfl.
An expert from the State Criminal Police Office should help to find out the cause of the explosion.
For hours on Thursday and Friday, the emergency services had to clear rubble and rubble aside in order to be able to recover the corpse of the woman and the family dog.
The adjacent semi-detached house was also badly damaged and had to be demolished in the meantime.
The two residents were only slightly injured.
feb / dpa