Ireland petrol station blast kills 10

Ten people including a schoolgirl were killed in an explosion at a petrol station in Ireland’s northwest, police said on Saturday suggesting a “tragic accident” may have been to blame.

The blast occurred at around 3:20 pm (1520 GMT) on Friday in the County Donegal village of Creeslough, Ireland’s police, the Garda Siochana, said in a media conference Saturday. There are 10 fatalities as a result of that explosion.

“The ten casualties are four men, three women, two teenagers — a boy and a girl — and a younger girl,” said police, adding that all the victims appeared to be locals.

Based on current information, it is not expected that there will be any further casualties and there are no outstanding reports of unaccounted for persons, said the force.

Police are treating the incident with an “open mind”, but said that “our information at this moment in time is pointing towards a tragic accident. Focus will turn to the causes of the incident once the search and recovery operation is completed.

Rescue efforts by Ireland’s emergency services went on through the night after the blast ripped through a petrol station forecourt and a nearby apartment complex. An aerial photograph taken after the explosion showed the petrol station building destroyed.

I was in my house at the time and heard the explosion. Instantly I knew it was something — it was like a bomb going off,” he told the BBC.

At a service at the local church on Saturday morning, Father John Joe Duffy said the community had been hit by “a tsunami of grief”.

Many emergency services vehicles remained at the scene overnight, including fire services from both sides of the border with British-run Northern Ireland.

Gardai and civil defence were also involved, and a coastguard helicopter airlifted some of the injured from Letterkenny University Hospital to the capital Dublin.

The university hospital, some 15 miles (24 kilometres) from the explosion, was placed on an emergency footing to deal with “multiple injuries”, it said in a statement.

Source: eNCA

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