Two injured in Hague explosions were sleeping in destroyed bar's cellar
Two of the injured people in the Tarwekamp disaster in The Hague were sleeping in the basement of a nearby bar when two explosions rocked the apartment building, killing six people. According to the owner of Café Bar Rosa, they were the bartender and a regular customer. “The bartender often sleeps in the basement after work,” the owner told Omroep West.
The two emerged from the basement alive after the explosions, which happened at around 6:15 a.m. on Saturday. “They had to go to the hospital because they had inhaled smoke,” the bar owner told the broadcaster. They were otherwise unharmed, he said.
“Officially we close at 3:00 a.m. and then we clean up,” said the owner, who asked not to be named. Sometimes a regular or two hangs around and chats with the staff while the cleanup happens, he added. If the bartender doesn’t feel like making the trip home, he sometimes sleeps in the basement.
The customer who was with him is a regular who often stayed late and sometimes helped with the cleaning, the owner said. “She is like a sister to us.”
Six people died in the explosions on Saturday morning. The emergency services recovered five bodies during the course of the weekend and found the sixth during the early hours of Monday morning. The police have identified all six victims. Three of them are from the same family, parents and a 17-year-old daughter. The family’s 8-year-old son was among the survivors.
It is still unclear what caused the explosions. Police told NL Times that there was no evidence of a drug lab at the scene, as some speculated after a similarly devastating explosion caused by a cocaine washing facility cost three lives in Rotterdam in January, but police still believe that foul play may have taken place at the Tarwekamp.
