New York digs for survivors after blast kills 7

NEW YORK, USA – The death toll from a thunderous gas explosion rose to 7 on Thursday as rescue workers continued to search for survivors in the rubble of two flattened Manhattan apartment buildings.

An unspecified number of people remained missing 26 hours after Wednesday’s disaster in East Harlem, but New York mayor Bill de Blasio said he hoped that survivors may be still found.

“Tragically, there are seven people now confirmed dead,” he told a news conference on Thursday.

He praised the “exemplary job” of rescue personnel contending with below freezing temperatures and strong winds that had whipped up smoldering pockets of fire in the wreckage.

“We are continuing rescue operations hoping to find others still alive,” he said. “Let me caution everyone here these rescue operations will continue for an open-ended period of time.”

The enormous explosion on Wednesday at 9:30 am sparked inevitable reminders for some New Yorkers of the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001 that brought down the Twin Towers.

Some witnesses said it felt like an earthquake, describing how they were knocked to the floor or telephoned panicked loved ones.

A New York Police Department spokesman identified the dead as 4 women and 3 men. Three of the women were aged 21, 44 and 67, he told the Agence France-Presse.

In total, 68 people were injured in the explosion, including those treated by first responders, police said.

Authorities have evacuated 89 apartments and three businesses in seven surrounding buildings owing to the fire, and because gas and heat have been turned off in the area, de Blasio said.

A total of 66 people, including 14 families with children, are being housed temporarily with the Salvation Army, he added.

On Wednesday, City Hall said 9people remained unaccounted for, but de Blasio refused to give a specific number on Thursday.

The Mexican foreign ministry said two women among the dead were Mexicans, along with one of those injured.

Around 15 minutes before the blast, energy company Con Edison received a call from an adjoining building alerting maintenance staff to the smell of gas.

It was the first deadly disaster of its kind to strike the city of eight million since de Blasio took office in January.

Dozens of firefighters remain on the scene at 116th Street and Park Avenue, a mainly Latino community in northern Manhattan.

Where the apartment buildings once stood were piles of twisted metal, thick white smoke and dusty rubble — a scene of utter devastation that witnesses likened to a war zone.

Jazzmen Arzuaga, 30, said she was at work when her wife rang to tell her what had happened.

“She called me and told me ‘Oh my God, you need to come home now, it’s like World War II, people are dying, there was an explosion.’ I just literally ran,” she said.

The couple lives across the street from the blast site.

Arzuaga’s wife Jay Virgo, also 30, said she was lying in bed when the blast threw her to the floor.

“There was glass everywhere, huge pieces of glass. It just looked crazy,” she said. – Rappler.com