Family of missing man find body in Rotterdam explosion rubble after defying authorities

Family members of one of the three people missing since an explosion and massive fire in an apartment building on Schammenkamp in Rotterdam on Monday have found a body in the destroyed building. They recognized one missing man, Kamran Khan, a 43-year-old father of three young children. He was initially identified from his pants and shoes, his brother, Razwan, and and other family members told Rijnmond.

So far, the police have not been able to enter the building and search for the three missing people due to a risk of collapse. Kamran’s brother and cousins could not wait any longer and entered the cordoned-off area of their own accord. They told NOS that they found the body in the destroyed apartment building without putting themselves in danger. The police asked them to leave, and they did so.

Dozens of family members of the three missing people are now at the site, demanding that the emergency services remove the body from the rubble and search for the other two missing people. Emotions are running high. A spokesperson for the emergency services couldn’t tell NOS whether they would recover the body.

On Tuesday, the local security office said that they are taking into account that the three missing people did not survive the explosion and subsequent fire. The damage to the building is enormous, and parts of it collapsed.

Nothing is yet known about what caused the explosion, but it is clear that a gas fire arose afterward, and the fire department could only extinguish it after the grid operator shut off the gas pipes on Tuesday morning. The emergency services did say that the blast had “enormous force” and wasn’t like the many explosives that had been set off throughout the Netherlands over the past year.

The authorities are trying to figure out how to safely enter the severely damaged building and search for the missing people and investigate the cause of the explosion.