(LONDON) The death of an eighth person after the explosion and collapse of a residential building on the Channel Island of Jersey was confirmed on Wednesday by local police, who believe that one person still remains. disappeared.
The victims have “not yet been formally identified”, but the families have been informed and taken care of by specialized teams, Jersey police chief Robin Smith said in a statement.
The explosion occurred around 4 a.m. (local and GMT) on Saturday in the capital of the island, the port of Saint-Helier. A gas leak could be the cause, residents having indeed contacted the firefighters a few hours before the explosion to complain of a smell of gas.
Local fire chief Paul Brown said independent investigators would be taken into the matter.
This is the second tragedy to hit the island, whose economy is based on the banking sector, tourism and fishing, in a few days.
Last Friday, the Jersey Coastguard ended a two-day search at sea to find three sailors missing in the sinking of their boat the day before after a collision with a ferry.
On Tuesday, police on the island said they had located two bodies off the wreckage.
