Belgium gas blast toll rises to nine

Firecrews and rescue teams work on Wednesday in front of a building that was destroyed by a suspected gas explosion in central Liege.

The death toll from a gas explosion that flattened a block of flats in the Belgian town of Liege rose to nine yesterday as police called off rescue efforts fearing that more buildings could collapse.
The blast in the early hours of Wednesday blamed on a domestic gas leak reduced a six-storey block of flats to a pile of rubble, injuring 21 people, three of them seriously, police said in a statement.
The search for survivors was temporarily called off at 7 am (0600 GMT) amid concern that walls of neighbouring building damaged by the blast presented a danger of collapse, police said.
They said building workers were called in to secure the site for the resumption of rescue efforts. A 13-year-old girl was pulled alive from the rubble on Wednesday afternoon.
Earlier Liege firefighter Jean-Marc Gilissen said on RTBF public radio that a dozen people may still be in the ruins of the building.
“It could be a dozen people, even more,” he said.
Firefighters had been called to the building over the weekend by a resident who said he could smell gas, but no problems with the gas supply were detected.