Gas Blast in Athens' Plaka District Collapses Building Near Acropolis

A powerful explosion tore through Athens' Plaka district on Friday morning, collapsing an old two-story building in the historic quarter at the foot of the Acropolis and damaging neighboring structures, authorities said.

The fire department said the blast struck the building in Plaka, the historic heart of the Greek capital and a heavily visited tourist area beneath the Acropolis hill. The structure came down, and buildings around it were also damaged.

Firefighters pulled two women from an adjacent building, and police said both were taken to a hospital. Local media reported that a passer-by suffered minor injuries in the blast.

Police sealed off the area, and specialist fire department rescue teams, including a sniffer dog, were sent in to determine whether more people remained trapped. The fire department said the search and rescue operation was still underway several hours after the explosion.

A local resident, Andreas Martzaklis, said an elderly couple lived on the second floor of the destroyed building. He said he did not know whether they had been inside at the time or had managed to escape. The people rescued from the neighboring building were all tourists, he added.

Video from the scene showed rubble scattered across the street and parked cars crushed by falling debris. Local media reported that as many as five people may have been inside the building when it exploded, though there was no confirmation.

Athens Mayor Haris Doukas, who inspected the site alongside first responders and gas company workers, said the cause was gas. He said the exact sequence of failures that led to the explosion remained unclear, describing the intensity of the blast as terrifying and saying something had gone seriously wrong.

With Hadrian's Arch visible in the background, onlookers gathered at the police cordon to photograph the damage as rescue crews continued to work through the debris.