Greek rescue workers on Saturday recovered six bodies from the ruins of a building in the central tourist district of the capital, Athens, that collapsed after a large explosion a day earlier.
The Greek fire service did not identify the victims, some of whom were believed to be tourists. Rescue workers pulled out the bodies of three women and three men, the fire service said.
The Plaka neighborhood, where the blast happened on Friday morning around 7:30, is home to many hotels and short-term rentals, with narrow streets lined with cafes and souvenir shops that draw large numbers of tourists.
The cause of the explosion, which blew out the windows of neighboring buildings and sent debris raining down on parked cars, was not immediately clear. But local officials said a gas leak was a possibility, and residents told reporters that they had smelled gas shortly before the incident.
Video from a hotel on the same street as the building captured the sound of the blast and showed a window shattering as guests hurried out of the building.
Vassilis Vathrakoyiannis, a spokesman for the fire service, said at a televised briefing on Saturday that arson investigators were examining the scene. Greece’s gas distribution company said in a statement on Friday that it was investigating as well.
Thirty firefighters and three dogs were involved in search-and-rescue operations that went through the night, the fire service said, as an earth-moving machine lifted out concrete and twisted metal under a floodlight. Efi Papavramopoulou, a fire service spokeswoman, told reporters that emergency workers had used thermal cameras and geophones — devices that detect faint sounds and underground vibrations — to comb through the rubble.
But six people who were unaccounted for after the blast were all found dead on Saturday, the fire service said.
Speaking to reporters at the scene on Friday evening, some 12 hours after the collapse, Mayor Haris Doukas of Athens described the explosion as “terrifying.”
“These are agonizing hours,” he said in televised comments.
A spokeswoman for the Greek police, Constantina Dimoglidou, said by telephone that four tourists had been staying on the first floor of the two-story building and were supposed to check out on Friday at 11 a.m.
They had checked in on Thursday for their flights, she said, but never boarded the plane as expected on Friday. Rescuers found a bag believed to belong to one of the four, she said.
Greek media reported that the four were all Americans — a couple, their son and his girlfriend — although Ms. Dimoglidou said she knew only that they had been due to return to the United States and could not confirm their nationality. A couple — a 77-year-old Briton and his 78-year-old Greek wife — who had also been in the building were also unaccounted for, she said.
At least three people were hurt in the collapse of the building — two residents of an adjacent building and a passerby — though their injuries were not serious, Ms. Dimoglidou said.
