One person has died and three others have been injured in an explosion that occurred in a hospitality establishment in Almería early this Wednesday afternoon. The event occurred shortly after 5:00 p.m. at the La Posada cafeteria, located on Conde Villamonte Street, near the Bullring and in front of a health center. Municipal sources have explained that the causes are being investigated, although it is believed that a gas leak could be behind the violent detonation, which has also caused a fire in the premises.
The 112 emergency coordination center of Andalusia received several calls around 5:20 p.m. alerting of an explosion, which had caused a fire and the fall of part of the building’s façade. They also reported that at least four people had been injured, one of them seriously due to burns, according to sources from this service. Firefighters, specialist technicians in deactivating explosive devices (Tedax) from the National Police, agents from the Local Police and units from the Health Emergency Center 061 have traveled to the scene of the events.
The same sources have indicated that one of the affected people had died and that there were also three other injuries. One of them, the owner of the establishment, has serious injuries due to burns and will remain admitted to the Torrecárdenas University Hospital, where another minor injury due to smoke inhalation has also been transferred. A third affected person has been taken to the health center in the bullring, next to the scene of the accident, for evaluation.
Operational services have confirmed that two explosions have occurred, one in the cafeteria and another in the adjacent garage. At the moment the exact causes that caused the explosion are unknown, although the first working hypotheses at the scene of the incident suggest that it could have been caused by a gas cylinder. The emergency teams maintain a wide security cordon and continue working at the place, where there were numerous people from the Brotherhood of the Macarena, which is in procession this afternoon in the capital of Almeria and whose headquarters, the San Ildefonso parish church, is located nearby.
The mayor of Almería herself, María del Mar Vázquez Agüero, has also traveled to the area to closely follow the evolution of the operation. The delegate councilor for the area of Traffic, Citizen Security and Emergencies of the Almería City Council, María del Mar García Lorca, is also in the area.
