GENEVA, June 14 — Two men were killed and nearly a dozen people injured when explosions ripped through an underground garage in northern Switzerland, police said today.
Investigators believe fireworks sparked the explosions in the garage in Nussbaum, near Zurich, regional police spokesman Daniel Wachter told a press conference, according to the Keystone-ATS news agency.
The bodies of two men — a 43-year-old Italian national and a 24-year-old Swiss citizen — were found inside the garage after the explosions occurred at around 7pm (1700 GMT/1am Malaysian time) yesterday.
Eleven people were slightly injured and around 100 had to be evacuated because the explosions sparked a fire that spread to the building above the garage, which suffered considerable damage, police said.
Pictures published by Blick newspaper showed a large plume of smoke billowing up and flames licking the bottom floors of a high-rise building in the small town, located around 25 kilometres (15 miles) northwest of Switzerland’s largest city.
Residents told Swiss media they heard a series of loud explosions.
“The event upset me. You usually only see such images from war zones,” mayor Bettina Lutz-Guttler told Blick. — AFP
