Explosion in Romania kills one person

An explosion at a heating plant in a southern Romanian city on Thursday left one person dead and blew out the windows of hundreds of apartments, media reports said. Three people were reported injured after the explosion at 5:30 a.m. (0330 GMT), Realitatea TV reported, citing local authorities.

Authorities were investigating the cause of the explosion, but said it was likely to have been accidental and there was no indication it had been caused by a bomb. Television images showed cars with their windscreens shattered and apartments with broken windows caused by the blast in the city of Craiova, some 240 kilometers (150 miles) west of Bucharest. No further details were immediately available.

Petre Iocanescu, head of the natural gas company Distrigaz in the city Craiova, said there was a separate explosion in an apartment caused by an accumulation of natural gas. No injuries were reported, reports the AP. I.L.