ATHENS, Jan 26 (Reuters) – A fire broke out after an explosion at a biscuit factory near the central Greek city of Trikala on Monday, killing four people and leaving one missing, the fire brigade said.
A total of 53 firefighters assisted by 16 trucks and ten more vehicles tackled the blaze that engulfed factory facilities.
Its owner, Violanta S.A., said the cause was unclear, according to a statement cited by the Athens News Agency.
Eight of 13 people at the factory had managed to escape, fire officials told Reuters. Four bodies were recovered, the fire brigade said adding that investigators and disaster response units were at the scene.
Greece’s largest labour union GSEE said the four victims were women and demanded a thorough investigation of the incident.
Six people including a firefighter were treated at a local hospital, mainly for respiratory problems, but their lives were not at risk, the Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis told ERTnews radio.
“We only care about our people right now. We stand by them and their families and we are doing everything possible to support them,” Violanta said in the statement.
(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou and Renee Maltezou; Writing by Antonis Pothitos; Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Andrew Cawthorne)
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