In a building of three floors in the Jan van der Heijdenstraat in the Laakkwartier in the Hague (in the west of the Netherlands) this afternoon, a large explosion occurred. There are already three people from the rubble removed. The specialist team from the fire department makes a plan for the salvation of at least one person under the rubble. There are so far no deaths are known, let the fire department know. That speaks of a gas explosion, but the cause is not yet known.
The explosion took place around 16.10 hrs. The facade of a house and a porch is all the way out. The house itself has collapsed. The surrounding houses are unstable. The wall of the adjacent house is twisted and torn. Of one of the houses next to the collapsed building, all the diamonds killed by the blast. The devastation is enormous. Fragments of glass are tens of meters away from the collapsed building. Local residents say that the huge blow a few blocks away was heard. “Windows and doors were shaking almost out. You think immediately to an attack.” The police now has an area around the house on the Jan van der Heijdenstraat trimmed with red and white ribbons.
Injuries
Employees of the team Specialist Technical Assistance (STH) stand ready to support the partially collapsed building to go to to look if there are still people under the rubble. This is also the help of a bloodhound invoked. Ambulances and fire engines are massive in the house. Now is also the trauma helicopter landed. It is unknown how the persons from the building and taken there. They are transferred to the ambulance. There is at least one person under the rubble. That victim is still alive, and the fire department has the person already know to locate, in the basement.
