An apartment house collapsed Saturday
in southwestern Poland, leaving four people dead, four injured and two
others missing, authorities said.
Scores of firefighters with dogs were searching the
rubble of the building in the town of Swiebodzice
(Shvyeh-'boh-tchi-tseh), according to Daniel Mucha, regional spokesman
for the firefighters.
He said the collapse of two floors of the
three-floor building might have been caused by a gas explosion.
Regional governor Pawel Hreniak said the search-and-rescue operation was expected to continue through Sunday.
"I confirm a fourth victim, an elderly man," Hreniak
told reporters. "But another resident, an elderly lady, contacted us to
say she was away from the house and was fine."
Still, firefighters looking for two more survivors
said there were no sounds yet coming from the building's bricks and
broken wood.
The governor of Swiebodzice, Bogdan Kozuchowicz, said
the pre-World War II building was recently renovated and had been in
good technical condition.
The injured were taken to hospitals in Swiebodzice
and in Wroclaw. One survivor, identified only by her first name
Stanislawa, told TVN24 that she was "miraculously saved."
"I was in the kitchen and suddenly it was dark and
full of debris and some broken wooden planks," she said from her
hospital bed in Swiebodzice. "I got on top of those planks and started
calling 'Help! Help!' Two firefighters came and pulled me out by the
arm."
She said her husband was resting on the bed at the time of the collapse.
"I don't know what has happened to him," she said, her voice trembling.
With her teenage son, also a survivor, at her side, she said the family had lost everything.
The head of the medical rescue workers, Wojciech Kopacki, said two of the dead were children.
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