Tuesday's explosion in Leverkusen arguably claimed the lives of 7 people.
The five employees reported missing following an explosion on Tuesday at a waste treatment plant in Germany, which has already killed two, are probably dead, the boss of the Currenta group, owner of the plant, said on Wednesday.
“We unfortunately believe that we will not find the missing alive,” said Frank Hyldmar at a press conference in Leverkusen, in the Rhine Valley.
Four of them are Currenta employees, the other is a colleague of an external company, he said.
The explosion, heard some 40 km away, caused a huge plume of black smoke.
Lars Friedrich, the director of the industrial park specializing in chemicals near which the disaster occurred, had already recognized the day before that hopes of finding them alive were dwindling.
Rescue operations continued on Wednesday but were made difficult by the heat still emerging from the blaze.
The teams must also take into account the possible presence of toxic substances since the explosion caused the fire in tanks of chemical solvents.
Soiled floors
"We are working to determine the causes of the accident," added the business manager, judging that it was still too early to move forward.
The explosion, which also left 31 injured, including one serious, caused a shock in Leverkusen, an industrial city of some 160,000 inhabitants and stronghold of the giant Bayer.
On Wednesday the authorities recommended residents not to touch any residue from the disaster, and to wash fruits and vegetables from their garden.
According to the website of the daily Rheinische Post, the smoke contained dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls, pollutants that are persistent in the environment.
+++ EIL: Das # NRW-Umweltamt geht nach der #Explosion im Leverkusener #Chempark von Dioxinverbindungen im Rauch aus.https: //t.co/Y02UmV2jsr
- Rheinische Post (@rponline) July 28, 2021
Toxicological analyzes are still in progress.
