BUCHAREST, Romania — A powerful explosion tore through two stories of an apartment building in Romania’s capital on Friday, killing three people and injuring at least 13 others, authorities said.

The explosion affected the fifth and sixth floors of the eight-story building, according to the capital’s Inspectorate for Emergency Situations. More than a dozen emergency vehicles, including 11 fire engines and four mobile intensive care units, were dispatched to the scene of the blast on Calea Rahovei in Bucharest’s Sector 5.

While the cause of the fatal blast was not immediately clear, the area’s gas distributor, Distrigaz Sud Retele, said in a statement Friday that it had received reports of a gas smell a day earlier and deployed emergency teams who shut off the supply after discovering the

See Full Page