London, Dec. 12 (BNA): The death toll from an explosion in an apartment building has risen to five, and four people are still unaccounted for, as emergency services indicated that no other survivors were likely to be found.
The explosion that occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning in an apartment building on the island of Jersey off the coast of northern France destroyed the three-storey building in Saint Helier, the capital of the island.
The local police said on Twitter: “The number of residents of the island confirmed killed in the explosion is now 5. There are a number of residents, and we are working on the assumption that 4 are unaccounted for.”
Jersey is a British Crown Dependency with a population of just over 100,000 people, Reuters reports.
The research team works at the site of an explosion in an apartment building in Saint Helier, on the island of Jersey
Fire services were called to the property on Friday evening after residents reported the smell of gas. The explosion occurred just before 0400 GMT on Saturday.
At a news conference on Sunday, emergency services said the search and rescue operation had moved into the recovery operation, indicating there was little hope of finding survivors.
Jersey State Police Chief Constable Robin Smith said the investigation would be independent and that he would “judge nothing and rule nothing out” when asked if he was treating the incident as a potential criminal case.
He added that the process of recovery and identification of the bodies would take some time.
“We’re not going to be here for days. We’re probably going to be here for weeks,” he told reporters.
EAE