(Panama) A violent explosion Tuesday morning in a building in the center of Panama City, probably due to a gas leak, injured around 20 people, including one in serious condition, said the director of the fire department of the capital, Abdiel Solis.
Posted yesterday at 5:50 p.m.
The duty prosecutor Julio Villarreal indicated that the seriously injured person is a woman suffering from “burns on 80% of the body”.
The explosion, which was heard across much of the city, occurred shortly after 7 a.m. local time (1200 GMT) at a 25-plus-story building in Panama’s central banking district. More than 150 police, firefighters and rescuers quickly rushed to the scene.
According to the first elements of the investigation, a gas leak is at the origin of the accident.
“It was a very powerful explosion. We had to evacuate nearly five buildings,” said director of civil protection services Carlos Rumbo.
More than 500 people were evacuated and a dozen buildings were affected directly or indirectly, according to firefighters.
Witnesses described to local media scenes of panic with shattered windows and people injured by shards of glass.
The construction company and the promoter of the building where the explosion occurred specified that it received its first inhabitants in May after having benefited from “all the necessary safety certificates”.