Netherlands: Apartment explosion causes several injuries in The Hague

An explosion has destroyed several apartments and injured multiple people in a neighbourhood in the Dutch city of the Hague on Saturday morning.

Residents of the city's northeastern neighbourhood of Mariahoeve say they heard a huge bang and screams before dawn. One woman told local media that she thought an earthquake had happened.

The cause of the explosion is currently unclear, but police have said they are looking for a car that left the scene.

Four people have thus far been rescued from the rubble and taken to hospital, but emergency authorities could not say how many people may still be trapped. Local media reported one of the individuals hospitalised was a child.

Authorities also said that five apartments were destroyed in the explosion, while 40 neighbouring apartments have been evacuated.

A specialised urban search and rescue team have been deployed to the scene, with four dogs trained to find victims. The same team was previously used in Turkey after the earthquake that occured there in early 2023.

Prime Minister Dick Schoof said in a statement he was shocked by the images of the disaster. “My thoughts go out to the victims, all other people involved and the emergency services who are now working on the scene,” he said.