INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Ten people, including two teenagers and a younger girl, were killed in an explosion at a petrol station in the Irish county of Donegal,
police said on Saturday, adding that the incident appeared to be &a tragic accident&, Reuters reported.The police said no more casualties
were expected from the explosion which happened shortly after 3 p.m
local time (1400 GMT) on Friday at the Applegreen petrol station on the outskirts of the village of Creeslough.The dead, who were all from
the local area, also included four men and three women
Eight people are being treated in hospital, including one with critical injuries who was airlifted to Dublin.We have to keep an open mind as
a police service in how we investigate this but our information at this point in time is pointing towards a tragic accident,& Superintendent
David Kelly told a news conference.Photographs from the scene showed a two-storey apartment block above the petrol station&s store with
walls blown out and a partially collapsed roof, and debris scattered across the forecourt where several cars were parked.Irish Prime
Minister Micheál Martin said the incident was an unspeakable tragedy for a small community of just a few hundred people, read the
report.People across this island will be numbed by the same sense of shock and utter devastation as the people of Creeslough at this tragic
loss of life,& Martin said in a statement late on Friday.I wish to express my deepest sympathies to their family, and friends, and to the
entire community of Creeslough, on this darkest of days for Donegal and the entire country.According to Reuters British Foreign Minister
James Cleverly also extended his sympathies to the victims& families.Local Sinn Fein lawmaker Pearse Doherty said at the scene on Friday
that the &massive explosion& was heard from miles around
As the only supermarket in the village, and home to a post office and hairdressers, he said the station would have been very busy just at
the end of the school day.Bernard Doherty, who lives nearby and knew all but one of the victims, told national broadcaster RTE that he and
others began clearing rubble with tractors and trailers before the Irish Coast Guard and a specialist rescue team from nearby Northern
Ireland joined emergency services at the scene.Rubble had been blown across the forecourt as far as the road
There was everything from tin to blocks, floor slabs, contents from the shop just lying around the place,& he said, adding that one person
was pulled out alive.About 20 seconds after landing on the scene, we knew what was ahead.The post 10 killed in a gas station explosion in
Ireland first appeared on Ariana News.
