At least one person has lost their life and more than thirty have been injured this Friday following a violent gas explosion in Lanús, in the south of the province of Buenos Aires. The incident occurred during renovation work on the network carried out by workers of Metrogas, the country’s main natural gas distributor, when a pipe was damaged, causing a major fire that emergency teams continue trying to put out.
As the regional Government has detailed, one person has died and more than 30 have been injured. Initially, information was provided about the possible disappearance of two people, but municipal authorities later clarified that both had been located: one of them in an "estado de desorientación" and the other corresponded to a "falsa alarma familiar", as published by the Argentine newspaper 'La Nación'.
"Of the two people reported as missing, one of them has already been found, in a state of disorientation, by security personnel who were searching the area; and the other caused a false family alarm," the president of the municipality, Julián Álvarez, said in a statement.
Among the injured, seven have serious injuries, thirteen remain under observation although not in danger, and another ten people have already been discharged from medical care.
Judicial sources have pointed out that two executives of Metrogas have been transferred to the Lanús General Prosecutor’s Office for formal identification. The National Gas and Electricity Regulatory Entity has advanced in a statement that the corresponding "sinister audits that it will make available to the Justice" will be carried out.
Metrogas has explained that the accident was caused when a machine working in the area hit a pipe in the network, which triggered the explosion and the subsequent fire. The blast wave has destroyed several businesses, including a charcuterie shop that collapsed almost completely, leaving a large amount of rubble on the roadway and several charred vehicles.