Search ends for victims of The Hague apartment explosion; Six killed, city flags lowered
The flags on The Hague’s municipal buildings are hanging half-mast on Monday after two explosions killed six people in an apartment building on Tarwekamp on Saturday. Two days after the devastating blasts, the emergency services’ search for victims has come to an end. It is unclear whether anyone is missing.
Search dogs from the specialist search-and-rescue team USAR were deployed at the apartment building at around noon on Monday to search a final part of the disaster site. It involves cellars under a detached wall that are too unstable for rescue workers to enter, a spokesperson for Veiligheidsregio Haaglanden, the office that covers the region’s emergency services, told Omroep West. The dogs didn’t find anything, so the emergency services assumed that there were no more victims in the building.
Two explosions occurred at a proch flat on Tarwekamp in the Mariahoeve district at around 6:15 a.m. on Saturday, destroying five upper-floor apartments. The emergency services removed six deceased people from the rubble, finding the sixth person in the cellar at around 2:30 a.m. on Monday, the Veiligheidsreio Haaglanden reported. The police have so far identified four of the victims. They were a 31-year-old man from Voorburg, and three victims from The Hague - a 17-year-old girl, a 45-year-old man, and a 41-year-old woman.
Rescue workers also pulled five survivors out of the wreckage, finding one in the rubble around 12 hours after the explosions. Four of the survivors were injured, including two with critical injuries.
The residents of 19 apartments are still unable to return to their homes. The municipality arranged hotel accommodation for those who couldn’t find somewhere to stay themselves. On Monday afternoon, the residents of five or six homes were allowed to collect personal belongings from their homes under supervision.
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima visited the disaster site on Monday morning. The King said he was “completely in shock” after his visit. “It is beyond imagination. You follow what is happening minute by minute, but when you see the site, the impact of the explosion on those buildings, all those people there, I am shaking as I think of it,” the King said.
The cause of the explosions is still unknown, though the police and Justice Minister David van Weel have said that there are indications that this was not an accident and that a crime had been committed. A car was seen fleeing the scene shortly after the blasts, and a burned-out car was found in the vicinity.
