One killed, a dozen injured in fireworks storage blast in Spain

23 May 2018 - 20:43 By Sonya Dowsett
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A fireman sprays water inside a destroyed house after an explosion in a fireworks storage facility in Paramos, Spain, May 23, 2018.
A fireman sprays water inside a destroyed house after an explosion in a fireworks storage facility in Paramos, Spain, May 23, 2018.
Image: REUTERS/Miguel Vidal

One person was killed and 26 wounded, including seven children, by an explosion in a fireworks storage facility in the town of Tui in Galicia, northwestern Spain, emergency services said on Wednesday.

The Faro de Vigo newspaper reported that at least four people had died in the blast that destroyed dozens of houses and smashed windows in a 4-kilometre (2.5-mile) radius, though emergency services could only confirm one death.

Footage from the scene posted on the El Mundo newspaper website showed thick smoke billowing from a residential area with debris and rubble scattered on the street.

Firemen were checking house by house in the area for possible dead and injured people, emergency services said.

The explosion seemed to be in a domestic house, not a commercial storage area, Tui Mayor Carlos Vazquez was quoted as saying at a press conference by Faro de Vigo.

“Everything points to it being a fireworks storage facility, although it was a house not a warehouse. It (the fireworks storage facility) was clandestine, and we didn’t know of its existence,” he said.

- Reuters


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