Young man killed in explosion in Memmingen

German drama

Teenager (†17) died in apartment building explosion

A teenager (†17) is found dead after an explosion in the German city of Memmingen that reduced a house to rubble and severely damaged surrounding buildings.

South DakotaSwiss sending agencies

The body of a 17-year-old teenager was recovered from the rubble of a residential building in the Bavarian city of Memmingen following an explosion. Emergency services found the missing teenager dead in a nearby house, which was also badly damaged, a police spokesman said early Saturday.

The building in Swabia, Bavaria, is now in ruins after the explosion on Friday afternoon. A 68-year-old resident who was initially searched was not in the house when the blast occurred, a police spokesman said. Police found him unharmed.

The victim was on the first floor

Emergency services managed to gain access to a partially collapsed residential building near the explosion site late Friday, where they found and pulled the body of the missing 17-year-old from the rubble on the first floor of the building, according to police.

Police said a wide range of support measures were being provided by the Police Support Team and Emergency Pastoral Care to relatives and those affected at the scene. More than 100 emergency service personnel and police officers from all the aid organisations involved were on duty.

Emergency worker injured while working in rubble field

An employee of the situation center spoke of “huge damage” and “huge amounts of rubble” that had to be cleared first. For this purpose, an excavator from the Technical Rescue Agency (THW) was used. The explosion at around 5:20 p.m. also severely damaged surrounding buildings. A firefighter was slightly injured while working in the rubble field.

According to a photographer from the German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur, parts of the house were blown about 100 meters away by the explosion. According to the police, nearby buildings and parked vehicles were also severely damaged by the blast wave and flying debris.