Rescue teams in eastern Germany are searching for three people who went missing after a building collapsed in east Germany following a suspected gas explosion.
Police said a gas explosion may have been the cause for the collapse of the building in the city of Görlitz, near the Polish border, on Monday night.
Emergency responders proceeded with great caution at the scene in case of gas leaks, German news agency dpa reported.
After the initial unsuccessful attempts to locate the missing under the rubble with the help of search dogs, rescuers began clearing debris with an excavator and by hand around 2am on Tuesday.
Initial concerns that up to five people may have been buried under rubble turned out to be wrong, police said.
A man who feared his wife and cousin might be trapped under the rubble said Monday they had arrived that day for a vacation in the rented house.
While shopping at nearby supermarket, he heard an explosion and returned to the house to find nothing but a large pile of rubble, dpa reported.
Police spokesperson Anja Leuschner told Deutsche Welle that the building was used as rented accommodation and holiday homes.
Neighbouring houses were evacuated with structural engineers sent to the scene to assess the damage, according to Bild.
The collapsed building in the historic Wilhelminian style contained rental and vacation apartments, police said.
Görlitz is Germany’s easternmost city with a population of 57,000. The historic, undamaged old town district is a popular location for international film productions.