BUCHAREST, Romania: A powerful explosion tore through two stories of an apartment building in Romania’s capital on Friday, killing three people and injuring at least 13 others, authorities said.
The explosion affected the fifth and sixth floors of the eight-story building, according to the capital’s Inspectorate for Emergency Situations. More than a dozen emergency vehicles, including 11 fire engines and four mobile intensive care units, were dispatched to the scene of the blast on Calea Rahovei in Bucharest’s Sector 5.
The cause of the fatal blast was not immediately clear, but authorities said the gas supply had been shut off in the area as a safety precaution.
Romania’s Ministry of Health said victims had been reported with polytrauma and burns.
The ministry later said one person was found dead under a concrete slab on the building’s sixth floor. At least 13 people were transported to hospitals in the capital.
All residents were evacuated from the building and rescuers carried out search operations to identify anyone trapped. Students and teachers at a nearby school were also evacuated as a precaution, Bucharest’s School Inspectorate said.
Video footage shared by emergency authorities showed the facades of corner apartments on two stories badly mangled by the blast, which appeared to have also blown out windows in neighboring apartments. Rubble was strewn across the street below.
“Following the explosion, another nearby apartment block was affected, where detached construction elements from the building’s facade were observed,” emergency authorities said in a statement.
Powerful blast at apartment building in Romania’s capital kills 3 and injures at least 13
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Powerful blast at apartment building in Romania’s capital kills 3 and injures at least 13
- Romania’s Ministry of Health said victims had been reported with polytrauma and burns
Changes to US security strategy ‘largely consistent’ with Russia’s vision: Kremlin
- Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the current US administration was “fundamentally different from the previous ones”
MOSCOW: Russia has welcomed changes in the US National Security Strategy, saying the adjustments that marked a radical departure from Washington’s previous policy were “largely consistent” with Moscow’s vision.
Washington’s new National Security Strategy, published early Friday, took aim at allies in Europe, calling it over-regulated, lacking in “self-confidence” and facing “civilizational erasure” due to immigration.
The document stated that the United States would also prevent other powers from dominating but added: “This does not mean wasting blood and treasure to curtail the influence of all the world’s great and middle powers.”
Commenting on the new US strategy, the Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the current US administration was “fundamentally different from the previous ones.”
“The adjustments we’re seeing, I would say, are largely consistent with our vision,” Peskov said in an interview with state TV station Rossiya aired Sunday.
“President Trump is currently strong in terms of domestic political positions. And this gives him the opportunity to adjust the concept to suit his vision,” Peskov added.
The publication of the updated security strategy came as officials from Kyiv held talks in Florida with Trump’s envoys on the US-drafted plan to end the near four-year war in Ukraine.
Three days of talks produced no apparent breakthrough.
President Volodymyr Zelensky committed to further negotiations toward “real peace,” as Russia in the early hours of Saturday launched another series of drone and missile strikes at Ukraine.
Zelensky is due to meet with European leaders — French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz — in London on Monday to take stock of the negotiations.
