Rotterdam police may have found the body of last person missing after Monday explosion

The police have found part of a body in the rubble of a Rotterdam apartment building destroyed by an explosion and fire on Monday. Police officers searching the rubble found the remains at around 5:30 a.m. on Friday. They’re waiting for it to get light to investigate further, the Rotterdam police said on X.

“We found part of the body of a missing person early this morning,” a police spokesperson told Rijnmond. “To be sure that it is the missing person, the Dutch Forensic Institute will investigate the body together with forensic detectives.” The police think the investigation will resume around 9:00 a.m. when it is light enough to see.

The only person still unaccounted for since the explosion on Monday evening is 33-year-old Mustafa. The emergency services searched through the night for his body. The body of missing Kamran Kahn (43) was found and recovered by his family on Wednesday. The police found the body of 22-year-old Ilyas on Thursday.

Eyewitnesses told Rijnmond that the search for Mustafa’s body was halted for a long time overnight when two barrels of chemicals started to leak due to shifting rubble. The fire brigade removed the barrels so that their colleagues could keep searching.

The explosion in the building’s garage and subsequent fire on Monday evening ultimately resulted in three deaths. One man was also seriously hurt. Witnesses said that he appeared to have fallen through the floor above the garage when it collapsed in the explosion. Emergency services took him to a hospital. A second person sustained minor injuries that could be treated by paramedics at the scene.

The cause of the explosion has not yet been determined.