Gas explosion in Tel Aviv wounds 3

A gas explosion in a Tel Aviv apartment Sunday morning wounded three people, one of them severely. According to residents, the blast occurred after a gas leak had been reported, but before the gas company was able to come to the scene to investigate.

The explosion occurred in an apartment building on Hertzl Street, and seriously injured a woman in her thirties in the apartment affected by the blast. Two others were treated for smoke inhalation.

A tenant in the building told the Ynet news site that there was “a terrible gas leak this morning, but the gas company told us they would arrive only after four hours.”

Paramedics were on the scene and firefighters said they had launched an investigation into the incident.

Several instances of gas tank explosions have made the news in recent months. On Saturday, several were injured after a gas-related blast in a three-story residential building in the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood of east Jerusalem.

Five people were killed and eleven injured in Acre last month when a gas tank explosion caused a building to collapse. Police later arrested four people, saying the explosion was a deliberate act of sabotage.

In January, a gas explosion killed a couple and their 2-year old child in their apartment in Gilo, Jerusalem, and destroyed several apartments in the building. Another woman injured in the blast later died of her injuries.