Two people were seriously injured after an explosion at a jewellery shop in a residential block on Carrer Sant Antoni, Cerdanyola del Vallès, at about 5.20pm on Tuesday. The blast damaged the building’s structural floor and caused the floor of a room in the flat above to collapse.

Residents of the affected block, which has a ground floor and four flats above it, and of the two neighbouring buildings were evacuated while emergency crews assessed the site. The cause of the explosion has not been established.

Two casualties taken to hospital

One of the seriously injured people was inside the jewellery shop and the other was in the flat above, according to reporting by Regio7. Firefighters rescued both before they were treated by paramedics and taken to hospital.

A woman was transferred to Hospital Parc Taulí in Sabadell and a man to Hospital Vall d’Hebron in Barcelona. The Sistema d’Emergències Mèdiques (SEM), Catalonia’s emergency medical service, also treated a woman living in the attic after an anxiety attack.

Structural and gas checks under way

  • Nine crews from Bombers de la Generalitat, Catalonia’s fire and rescue service, attended the incident.
  • SEM deployed 10 ambulances.
  • Local Police and Mossos d’Esquadra, Catalonia’s regional police, also attended.

Bombers deployed its collapsed-structures unit and search-dog team to check for further casualties. The Cerdanyola municipal architect was requested to assess the building’s condition, while gas-company technicians were asked to inspect the supply.

Evacuated residents will need to await the outcome of those structural and gas-supply assessments before access to the affected buildings can be determined.

Primary sources: interior.gencat.cat, departament d'interior, dsp.interior.gencat.cat, Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament d'Interior. Reported by regio7.cat, elcaso.elnacional.cat, larazon.es, elconfidencial.com, ACN, cronicaglobal.elespanol.com, VilaWeb, hospital.vallhebron.com, metropoliabierta.cat, cronicaglobal.cat, La Ciutat, CatalunyaPress.es, metropoliabierta.elespanol.com, diaridesabadell.com, cerdanyola.info, EFE, vallhebron.com.