SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Firefighters struggling to extinguish a blaze brought on by a lethal explosion close to the Dominican Republic’s capital this week discovered two extra our bodies Wednesday, bringing the demise toll to 13, authorities stated.
The variety of victims is anticipated to extend since responders haven’t been in a position to totally entry the constructing the place the explosion occurred Monday at a bakery within the metropolis of San Cristobal, which lies simply west of the capital of Santo Domingo.
A further 10 individuals stay lacking, with anguished family and friends pacing exterior hospitals and morgues in anger and frustration, saying nobody has been offering them info.
Jaissy Capellán, press coordinator for the Emergency Operations Middle, advised The Related Press that the 2 further our bodies have been pulled from the rubble early Wednesday.
In the meantime, authorities are probing what might need triggered the explosion, vowing to crack down on any enterprise which may not have been following rules.
Juan Manuel Méndez, director of the Emergency Operations Middle, stated at a information convention late Wednesday that if an unidentified manufacturing facility was working illegally as some residents have alleged, the investigation would make clear that.
“If there may be some sort of culpability or not, the investigation will decide that,” he stated. “We are going to take authorized motion.”
No less than 59 individuals have been injured within the blast, which occurred in a bustling industrial space within the metropolis’s heart and destroyed 4 buildings and broken 9 others. Greater than 30 individuals stay hospitalized with situations together with fractures, burns and respiratory issues. Two firefighters additionally have been handled for smoke inhalation.
Greater than 30 ambulances and a few 500 personnel together with rescuers and officers responded to the incident.
Poisonous smoke nonetheless hovered over the explosion web site, with well being officers urging individuals to put on face masks.
San Cristobal, the birthplace of dictator Rafael Trujillo, was the location of one other explosion almost 23 years in the past. An arms depot exploded in October 2000, killing at the very least two individuals and injured greater than two dozen others, forcing authorities to evacuate hundreds.
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Related Press reporter Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico contributed.