UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS; EDITS THROUGHOUT
By Anadolu staff
BERLIN (AA) - At least three people died and more than a dozen others were injured after an explosion at a small shop in Dusseldorf caused a massive fire, authorities said on Thursday.
The explosion occurred at around 2.25 a.m. (0025GMT) local time at a small shop on the ground floor of an apartment building in the Flingern district of the city, a spokesman for the fire department said.
“When the first emergency services arrived on the scene, they found that the shop was fully engulfed in flames. The flames had already reached the second floor,” the spokesman told Bild newspaper.
Fire crews rescued more than 70 residents, and 16 people were taken to nearby hospitals, with two of them with life-threatening injuries, according to the spokesman.
Several cars parked in front of the building were severely damaged by the flames.
The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear. Public broadcaster WDR reported that the body of one of the victims had significant injuries, not from the fire, raising suspicions that the fire could have been intentionally set to cover-up another crime.
Dusseldorf police declined to make any official comment because of the ongoing investigation. The autopsies were expected to be performed later in the day to determine the cause of the victims' deaths.