Explosion in Polish parish house kills 2, injures 7

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Two people were killed Friday when a suspected gas explosion demolished half of an old Evangelical parish house in the southern Polish city of Katowice, officials said.

The morning blast injured seven other people, according to the regional governor, Jaroslaw Wieczorek.

A spokesperson for a children’s hospital in Katowice, Wojciech Gomolka, said two girls aged 5 and 3 arrived with injuries to their limbs and heads and light burns, but were stable and conscious.

Officials said two people initially were reported missing but firefighters helped by a sniffer dog found their bodies in the rubble later in the day.

Firefighters say gas that was used for heating and cooking in the three-story brick house that belongs to the parish of the Savior most likely caused the explosion.