3 dead in Spain apartment collapse

A powerful explosion blamed on a gas leak ripped through an apartment building in northern Spain on Tuesday, killing at least three people and injuring 12, officials said.

The pre-dawn blast reduced the five-story building in the northern city of Palencia to a pile of smoking rubble, with flames periodically shooting out from the mound of concrete and glass.

Rescue teams recovered three bodies from the rubble and were searching for more victims, said Miguel Alejo, head of the Spanish Interior Ministry office in Palencia.

Alejo said the blast was believed to have been caused by a gas leak.

Between 25 and 30 people lived in the building, many of them senior citizens. The building was constructed in the 1970s.