Netanya: 'Building where blast occurred likely to collapse'

Municipality deems building "dangerous" after explosion there causes number of apartments to collapse and injures 11 people.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN, JPOST.COM STAFF
Magen David Adom ambulances 311 (photo credit: Reuters)
Magen David Adom ambulances 311
(photo credit: Reuters)
The Municipality of Netanya on Saturday announced that the building in which an explosion occurred Friday evening injuring 11 people was "dangerous" and is likely to collapse.
The first floor of the building, located on Pinkas Street in the city, went up in flames after a blast there caused a number of apartments to collapse.
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Police said the blast originated on the first floor, and that the injured residents resided on the second floor.
The blast also caused a restaurant on the first floor of the building to go up in flames.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the reason for the blast was unclear and it had caused a wall in a restaurant to collapse.
Channel 2 said an electrical short-circuit may have caused the incident, rather than crime or terrorist related reasons.
Magen David Adom teams evacuated eleven injured people to hospitals. One person was moderately injured, while the remaining people sustained light injuries from smoke inhalation, police said.
Paramedics took seven of the injured to Laniado Medical Center in Netanya and the other four, including the moderately injured man, to Hillel Yafe Hospital.
All of the injured were foreign workers carrying out various labor jobs in Netanya.
Firefighters gained control over the blaze which allowed police and firefighters to continue investigating the cause of the blast.
In June, a gas explosion in another Netanya building killed three teenage girls and a young man and injured over ninety people. Two men, one of which was a gas technician, were arrested over that blast.
Reuters contributed to this report.