Athens explosion: Relatives help identify six victims as cause remains unknown

An explosion in Athens’ Plaka district killed six people, including a British man, when a building collapsed on Friday, 25 September. By Sunday, relatives of five victims had arrived in Greece to help identify the bodies, while investigators had yet to establish what caused the blast. The continuing identification work limits what can be stated definitively about the people who died.

The victims included four US citizens, one British citizen and one Greek citizen, according to eKathimerini. The British man and Greek woman were reported to be a couple who lived in the building. Accounts differ on their respective ages, and reporting on Saturday said formal identification had not been completed. No names have been confirmed in the reporting cited here.

Identification continues

Relatives of five of the six victims arrived in Greece by Sunday, eKathimerini reported. They were expected to visit the Athens Coroner’s Office, probably on Monday, to provide genetic material for identification. That was an expected next step at the time of the report, rather than confirmation that the visit or identification had taken place.

The Guardian reported that the four Americans were staying in a short-term rental in the building and had been due to fly to the United States on Friday. Their failure to arrive for the flight helped police assess who might have been inside, according to the newspaper. The British man and Greek woman lived on an upper floor, its report said.

What investigators know about the blast

The explosion happened shortly after 7:30 a.m. on Friday in Plaka, close to the Acropolis. The blast brought down the building at 15 Lysikratous Street and damaged nearby properties and vehicles, according to the Guardian and Euronews. eKathimerini reported on Sunday that the explosion was followed by a fire and that investigators were examining whether a natural-gas leak was involved. It said no cause had been established.

Kostas Tsigas, president of the Fire Service Officers’ Association, told Greek state broadcaster ERT that the strongest release of the explosion appeared to have occurred on the second floor, eKathimerini reported. He cautioned that its apparent location alone could not explain why the building failed. Forensic findings, rather than the position of the blast, will be needed to establish what happened.

Investigators were reviewing witness accounts, video footage, structural materials, pipes and utility installations, according to eKathimerini. Fire investigators had been at the scene since the explosion. Those lines of inquiry leave the possible gas leak as a hypothesis under examination; the available reporting does not establish an origin, a defect or anyone’s responsibility for the blast.

Rescue work and wider damage

The search involved about 30 firefighters, six vehicles and three specially trained dogs, Euronews reported. Crews also used geophones and specialist cameras to look for signs of people under the rubble. eKathimerini said fire and unstable conditions complicated the operation. Athens Mayor Haris Doukas called the incident an ‘unprecedented disaster,’ according to the Guardian.

The harm extended beyond the collapsed building. Euronews reported that two women were freed from a neighbouring property and taken to hospital, while another person sustained minor injuries from flying debris. Its account also described damage to nearby properties and vehicles. eKathimerini later reported severe damage to the two adjoining buildings and considerable damage across the street.

US Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle said the US Embassy was providing consular assistance and support to victims’ families, eKathimerini reported. That assistance accompanied the identification process for the four US citizens; the available account did not say when formal identification would be completed or when investigators expected to announce a cause.

Plaka is a heavily visited district around the Acropolis, where tourists stay in hotels and short-term rentals, the Guardian reported. Its earlier coverage of the explosion described local questions about oversight of those rentals. Those questions provide context for the public response, but the investigation has not established that the rental arrangement or its regulation contributed to the blast.