One dead, several injured after massive explosion at Dutch port of Rotterdam

An industrial section of the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, where an explosion killed one person and injured several others. Representational pic

An explosion at the Dutch port of Rotterdam on Thursday killed at least one person and injured several others, city police said.

Police said the blast at Europe's biggest port happened late Thursday morning and that a crime scene has been set up to try to establish what caused it.

The explosion happened at a refinery and fuel terminal run by Gunvor Energy in an industrial section of the vast port premises. Dutch broadcaster NOS said that a maintenance team had been working on a section of pipes there.

Rotterdam emergency services reported a major power failure at the port and said that a transformer had caught fire under unexplained circumstances. Several companies halted their operations and evacuated workers.

Power was gradually being restored to companies in an industrial area of the port a few hours later.

A number of oil and gas companies are based there and fire crews were standing by. It was not immediately clear whether the blackout and the explosion were linked.

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