Still under the shock, rescapés of Enschede in the east of the Netherlands where 20 people found death in the explosion of a warehouse of fireworks Saturday, their wounds bandage after the drama which they say to have lived like a "air crash" or a "bombardment".
The rescuers put a term at their research, " If there remain people in it, they died now ", declared with a person in charge for the police force.
Most of the victims are people who had gathered in the close streets, being unaware of the risks of explosion generated by the initial fire. investigators occupy from now on the ground to try to find indices explaining the origin of the gigantic explosion which occurred Saturday in middle of afternoon, blowing the houses and putting fire at the vehicles in the district. « Their work is difficult. There are places where heat is so intense that they cannot venture there ", explained the mayor-assistant of the city, Rinus Althof.
The Beatrix queen and the Prime Minister Wim Kok went on the spot. One could see the sovereign one of the Netherlands comforting a police officer at the edge of the tears.
The police force specified that, on the 20 dead ones comptablized, seven corpses remained to be recovered. Sunday, 62 wounded was always hospitalized, including eleven in unit of intensive care.
Some 2 000 people were also evacuated district disaster victim. Four hundreds of them spent the night in a gymnasium reconverted in provisional refuge.
Martijn Wiodboer, spokesman of the city, explained why fire had taken outside a warehouse of the company of fireworks S. E Fireworks and which it had been propagated with the storage section which contained some 100 tons of fireworks.