Blast wrecks hotel wing

Press, 29 December 1986, Page 9

Blast wrecks hotel wing

NZPA-Reuter Garmisch-Partenkirchen Seven West Germans were killed yesterday and 12 injured, some seriously, when a big gas explosion ripped through a luxury hotel in the Bavarian ski resort of Gar-misch-Partenkirchen. The blast in the recreation wing of the Hotel Riessersee was caused by a gas leak from a defective pipe, and destroyed an indoor swimming pool and sports centre. A police spokesman

said the hotel’s 320 guests as well as outside visitors had all been accounted for with the exception of one local woman. The dead and injured, all West Germans, had been using the sports facilities at the time of the accident. Four of the injured dragged out from beneath the rubble were very badly injured and might die of their injuries, said the spokesman. More than 300 police and firemen were joined by a mountain rescue

team with sniffer dogs in combing through the debris. The blast brought down the reinforced concrete roof of the swimming pool, flattened walls and set off a blaze in the fourstorey recreation wing, witnesses said. Nearby bedrooms were also destroyed. Garmisch-Partenkir-chen is a popular winter resort near the Austrian border. The hotel was built only seven months ago.