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Firefighters in front of a destroyed house in Hemer
Photo: Bjoern Braun / dpa
An explosion completely destroyed an apartment building in Hemer, Sauerland, on Friday evening and seriously injured several people.
By early Saturday morning, four injured people had been rescued from the rubble, and according to the police and fire department, at least one other person was still buried.
Emergency services could have contacted her in the meantime.
But this was canceled again.
Hemer is a town with 34,000 inhabitants in the Märkisches Kreis in Sauerland.
It is the eastern neighboring town of Iserlohn.
The police and fire brigade are assuming a gas explosion.
The exact cause was initially unclear.
Aerial photos show a debris field where an apartment building previously stood.
The house is said to have been a six-party house with eight residents.
Three of the eight residents of the house were probably not at home at the time of the collapse, police said.
It is not yet clear how many people were in the house at the time of the accident.
At around 3:00 a.m. on Saturday night, rescue workers first recovered a man and a little later a woman from the remains of the house.
According to fire department spokesman Andreas Schulte, both were "in acute danger of death".
They were first given medical treatment on site and were to be taken to a clinic.
The task for the fire brigade was to advance cautiously but also quickly to the buried victims.
"We worked our way very carefully so that we could speak to them and touch them," said Schulte.
"Partly upside down," he added.
"It was tedious work."
Two injured people had already been recovered on Friday evening.
One of the victims was hospitalized with serious injuries but not life-threatening.
According to the fire department spokesman, the man was lying high up on the rubble mountain.
The other person was reportedly only slightly injured.
fdi/dpa
