Twenty-five people were injured, four of them severely, during an explosion that destroyed an apartment building in the western German city of Wuppertal, police said Sunday.
A car and a house are destroyed after an explosion in Wuppertal, Germany, June 24, 2018. German police say 25 people were injured, when an explosion destroyed a several-store building in the western city of Wuppertal. (Henning Kaiser/dpa via AP)
Police said the explosion produced a large bang and rocked the multi-story building shortly before midnight Saturday, frightening people nearby so badly they ran out into the streets.
The cause and nature of the explosion was under investigation, German news agency dpa reported. The blast had so much force it destroyed the attic and top three floors of the building, dpa said.
Fires broke out in several areas of the structure, while firefighters had trouble dousing the flames ceilings, walls and floors kept collapsing. They located four severely injured people in the wreckage who were hospitalized, according to dpa. Another 21 were treated at the scene for less serious injuries.
A car is destroyed after an explosion of a house in Wuppertal, Germany, June 24, 2018. German police say 25 people were injured, when an explosion destroyed a several-store building in the western city of Wuppertal. (Henning Kaiser/dpa via AP)
Emergency personnel on Sunday picked up bricks and furniture on the street. A car was destroyed, buried under window frames that were blown onto it by the explosions' impact.
Some of the building's roof beams stood black and eerie in the smoke as police scoured accessible parts of the building for anyone who might trapped inside before giving the all-clear.
Where the building stood is now a huge gap in a row of apartment buildings in the city's Langerfeld neighborhood.
A house is destroyed after an explosion in Wuppertal, Germany, June 24, 2018. German police say 25 people were injured, when an explosion destroyed a several-store building in the western city of Wuppertal. (Henning Kaiser/dpa via AP)
Later Sunday, authorities brought in heavy equipment to tear down the remains of the ruin. They said it was too dangerous for investigators to search for evidence that might reveal the explosion's cause because the destroyed building could collapse at any time.
BERLIN (AP) — The German parliament voted Thursday to introduce an annual national “veterans' day” to honor people who have served in the military, which often has struggled to gain recognition in the country.
The proposal was drawn up by the parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-party governing coalition together with the main opposition conservative bloc, and was approved by nearly all parties in the Bundestag, parliament's lower house.
It says a “veterans' day” should be celebrated “publicly and visibly” every June 15. It also calls for improved follow-up care for people wounded while serving in the German military, the Bundeswehr.
The motion “is a strong, important and, yes, an overdue signal of recognition and appreciation,” Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told lawmakers.
Post-World War II Germany has generally been uncomfortable with militarism and war, and the country emerged slowly from its postwar military shell after reunification in 1990. Then-Chancellor Helmut Kohl broke a taboo against German troops serving abroad by sending military medics to support the U.N. mission in Cambodia in 1992.
More robust military deployments abroad, for example in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Mali, later became a mainstay of the Bundeswehr's activities.
In 2008, Germany introduced a new military decoration for bravery, giving troops the possibility of earning such an honor for the first time since World War II. A memorial to soldiers killed while serving in the Bundeswehr was built at the Defense Ministry in Berlin and inaugurated in 2009.
But even now, “the word ‘veteran’ is little used in our society, and this must come to an end,” said Johannes Arlt, a lawmaker with Scholz's center-left Social Democrats who has served as an air force officer. “We need more visibility and we need more recognition for our soldiers and veterans, and that's why we need a veterans' day in Germany.”
The Bundeswehr was founded in 1955, serving first as West Germany’s military and, since 1990, as that of the reunited Germany. More than 10 million people have served in it over the decades.
Germany launched a drive to modernize the Bundeswehr and increase its military spending shortly after Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
FILE - A soldier is seen in front of the 'Military Memorial of the German Bundeswehr' in Berlin Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2009. The German parliament voted Thursday for the introduction of an annual national “veterans' day” to honor the service of people who have served in the military, which often has struggled to gain recognition in the country. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File)
