Published on •Updated
An explosion at the Dutch port of Rotterdam on Thursday killed at least one person and injured several others, city police said.
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Police said the blast at Europe’s biggest port happened late on Thursday morning and that a crime scene has been set up to try to establish what caused it.
The explosion happened at a refinery and fuel terminal run by Gunvor Energy in an industrial section of the vast port premises.
Dutch broadcaster NOS said that a maintenance team had been working on a section of pipes there.
Rotterdam emergency services reported a major power failure at the port and said that a transformer had caught fire under unexplained circumstances.
Several companies halted their operations and evacuated workers.
Power was gradually being restored to companies in an industrial area of the port a few hours later.
A number of oil and gas companies are based there and fire crews were standing by. It was not immediately clear whether the blackout and the explosion were linked.
This is a developing story and our journalists are working on further updates.
Additional sources • AP
