10 killed, 8 injured in an explosion at a gas station in Ireland

The explosion leveled the gas station building, which holds the village’s main shop and post office, damaged an apartment building and shattered cottage windows.

The death toll from a gas station explosion that shattered a small village in northwest Ireland rose to 10 on Saturday, and emergency workers who combed through piles of rubble said they did not expect to find more bodies.

Irish police said no one remained missing after Friday’s explosion in Creeslough, County Donegal. Police are investigating the cause of the blast, and Superintendent David Kelly said evidence “is pointing toward a tragic accident.”

Ireland’s police force, An Garda Siochana, said the midafternoon explosion killed four men, three women, two teenagers, and a girl of primary school age. Eight people were hospitalized — one in critical condition — after the blast destroyed the Applegreen service station in the community of about 400 people near Ireland’s rugged Atlantic coast.

Emergency responders from Ireland and neighboring Northern Ireland joined in what police said Saturday was “search and recovery” operation. Sniffer dogs combed the debris, and a mechanical digger lifted piles of rubble from the site on Saturday.

The explosion leveled the gas station building, which holds the main shop and post office for the village, damaged an adjacent apartment building, and shattered the windows in nearby cottages.

“There were blocks thrown a hundred yards away from the scene,” local medic Dr. Paul Stewart told Irish broadcaster RTE. “The whole front of the building collapsed… and the roof of the first floor collapsed down into the shop. It’s a miracle they got anyone out.”

Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said it was one of the “darkest of days for Donegal and the entire country.”