- Several explosions in an underground car park in Nussbaumen AG claimed two lives on Thursday evening.
- The victims are a 24-year-old Swiss man and a 43-year-old Italian man, the Aargau cantonal police announced at the media conference at noon in Nussbaumen.
- Eleven people were slightly injured. Most of them suffered from smoke inhalation. The residents of several high-rise buildings were evacuated.
- The police now assume that “powerful fireworks” were being used in the underground car park.
It was probably more than a normal firework battery, but not explosives in the true sense of the word, said police spokesman Daniel Wächter at the media conference. This is likely what led to the strong explosion. How exactly the event came about is still being clarified. The investigation is ongoing.
Specialists also checked the structural integrity of the underground car park in the residential area in the village center. Measures have been taken to secure the underground car park, it was said. Cars were towed away to reduce the load on the ceiling above the underground car park. An excavator transported debris from the affected underground car park for private tenants.
There was great chaos in the underground car park. The police stated that there was immense damage to the building and the parked vehicles. There was no estimate of the extent of the damage.
Some of the approximately 100 people who were evacuated from six buildings connected to the underground car park were able to return to their apartments during the night. A contact point was set up on site for the remaining people on Friday morning. According to the police, the eleven injured people are likely to be back home.
Clean-up work continues
The day after the explosions, the clean-up work continued. In daylight, a picture of destruction was revealed: a pizzeria, an optician’s shop and a hairdresser’s shop were particularly affected. Traces of smoke and broken windows were visible on the facade, as a reporter from Keystone-SDA reported.
Clear signs of the explosions were also visible on the high-rise building opposite. Blinds were bent, shutters hung crooked and windows were dented. On a balcony on the fifth floor it looked as if a grenade had hit the corner of the building from below.
The event had upset them, and similar images were otherwise only seen in war zones, said Bettina Lutz-Güttler, mayor of Obersiggenthal, to SRF. Nussbauen is politically part of the municipality of Obersiggenthal. Together with the police, they had organized possible rooms to accommodate people.
Violent explosions
There were several explosions in the underground car park shortly before 7 p.m. on Thursday. The fire subsequently spread across several floors of an apartment block. The high, mushroom-shaped cloud of smoke could be seen from far away.
According to the police, the fire-fighting operations were completed on Friday night. No other dead or injured people were found. Because drones were hindering helicopters in use, the police urgently called on all pilots to bring their aircraft to the ground.