Seven Injured in Overnight Explosion at Amsterdam Apartment Building, with One in Critical Condition
The blast tore through a 24-hour gym in a nine-storey flat shortly after midnight on Friday. Around 400 residents were evacuated, emergency services are still searching for victims.
At least seven people have been injured, one of them critically, after an explosion and large fire at an apartment building on the Osdorper Ban in Amsterdam Nieuw-West in the early hours of Friday. The blast tore through a 24-hour gym in an annex below the nine-storey block of flats, partially collapsing the structure and forcing the evacuation of around 400 residents. Emergency services are still searching for more potential victims. The cause is unknown.
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What happened
The first emergency call came in at 00:15 am. The explosion happened in a building that houses Fitness Studio Onna, a 24-hour gym attached to a galerijflat (gallery apartment block) on the Osdorper Ban. A large fire broke out immediately afterwards and was heard across much of the city. The fire brigade had the blaze under control after about 4.5 hours, with the all-clear given around 5 am.
The annex itself partially collapsed. Photos from the scene show several walls of the gym blown out. Rescue teams sent in a drone first, then sniffer dogs from the Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team, and a crane is now being used to dismantle what is left of the building, in order to keep searching for any victims who may still be trapped. The fire brigade is also taking measurements in the flat above to check for smoke spread.
“It felt like an earthquake”
For people living nearby, the experience was overwhelming. “It felt like an earthquake,” Amina, who lives opposite the apartment block, told RTL Nieuws. “It was so intense that my home literally started shaking. I heard people screaming in panic and calling for help. People were also shouting that someone was burning alive.”
Residents of the flat itself were evacuated quickly. “I was just about to go to sleep, and at some point I heard a bang. At first, I thought a bomb had been planted,” one resident told NOS at the district office where evacuees were taken. “When I looked outside, I saw that the entire gym was open.” Another said: “I actually went back to bed. And then there was shouting: everyone must come outside, because there is a risk of collapse.”
Hundreds evacuated
Around 400 residents of the apartment block were evacuated, both because of the smoke and because of doubts about the integrity of the structure. GVB buses ferried evacuees to the Stadsloket Nieuw-West (the district office on Osdorpplein), where about 100 of them spent the night under the care of the city and the GGD (the public health service), which is providing psychosocial support. The municipality is arranging hotel rooms for those who cannot organise their own accommodation. Residents have been told they cannot return home today, and possibly not in the afternoon either.
The cause is still unclear
What caused the explosion remains unknown. The owner of Fitness Studio Onna wrote on Instagram that camera footage from inside the gym shows the blast coming “from under our floor.” “On the ground floor, beneath our gym, there are pipes, a transformer room and residents’ storage areas, among other things. These spaces are not part of our gym,” he wrote, urging people not to engage in “speculation and sensational stories.”
The police say they are aware of the footage but cannot yet comment. Because the cause is not known, the Explosives Clearance Service was also called in alongside the regular emergency services. “We are still taking all scenarios into account,” a spokesperson for the safety region said. “It could have been a gas pipe, but it could also have been something else.”
A neighbourhood under strain
Amsterdam Nieuw-West, like several other Dutch urban districts, has seen a string of explosions in recent years, ranging from ATM blasts to attacks linked to organised crime. NOS notes that the Osdorp area has seen “more frequent explosions” in recent times, although there is no indication so far that the Osdorper Ban incident is linked to any of those earlier cases. Across the country, this is the third high-profile blast in an Amsterdam building this year, after an explosion at a home on Herculesstraat in Amsterdam-Zuid in March and an incident at the D66 party office in The Hague in May.
For now, the focus is on the search for victims and on caring for the people who, in the early hours of Friday, suddenly found themselves outside their flats wondering what had happened. The investigation into the cause is expected to take some time.