Five people die in gas explosion

Five poeple were killed and eleven injured in a gas explosion that demolished a prefabricated house in the centre of Frenštát pod Radhoštěm in the early hours on Sunday. One person is still missing.

Two people suffered very serious burns. They are in a life threatening condition at the burns centre of the Teaching Hospital in Ostrava, north Moravia. A woman suffered burns on 90 percent of the body and a man has burns on 60 percent of the body.

The explosion occurred at c. 4:00 on Sunday and a fire broke out subsequently.

Rescuers had to pull down almost the whole house to have access to the place of accident. Three sniffer dogs are searching the debris.

One voluntary firefighter was also wounded, but his life is not threatened. He suffered burns and probably head and chest injuries.

Rescuers evacuated several inhabitants from surrounding houses.

The accident was most probably caused by a gas explosion on the first floor of the four-storey building, police spokesman Zbynek Tomsik said.

However, the real cause of the explosion is yet to be investigated.

Firefighters are still extinguishing the rest of the house with six flats. They gradually pulled down three walls, one of them slightly damaged an adjacent house.

Inhabitants of the surrounding houses say they heard two or three explosions in the night.

Locals are speculating that gas might not be the real cause of the accident.

"A very troublesome man was living in the basement. The town wanted to evict him from the flat. He threated to kill them all," local inhabitant Tomas Babinec told reporters.

Other witnesses also mentioned the problem man.

The police are allegedly checking the version of a deliberate explosion.