Worker killed, three injured in Jerusalem gas explosion

A worker was killed and three others injured in an explosion at a residential building in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Zeev on Tuesday, with the blast thought to be caused by a gas canister.

Paramedics on the scene said the deceased man was in his 40s.

They said they treated an additional three injured people, all of them construction workers.

The wounded were taken to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital for further treatment, the Magen David Adom emergency service said.

The hospital provided an update Sunday afternoon, saying that its trauma unit was treating a 58-year-old and a 63-year-old who were seriously injured, suffering from burns and injuries sustained from the blast’s shockwave. “They are intubated and sedated,” the statement said.

A 44-year-old laborer working in a nearby building was injured after he fell from a height of six meters (20 feet) as a result of the blast.

The explosion occurred in a residential apartment that was under renovation.

“We heard an enormous boom. We thought it was an earthquake,” one resident of the area told Channel 12.

Another eyewitness said that after the explosion there were “sparks and smoke.”

“The neighbors are constructing a new room and it probably needed to be attached to the gas line. The workers shut off the main gas line to connect the gas. It looks like the canister simply exploded. Police and fire services arrived right away. We didn’t even have time to think what to do,” he told Channel 12.

Two police motorcycles responding to the blast collided 200 meters away from the building, lightly injuring both riders, according to the Ynet news site.