Rescue teams search for three missing after Görlitz building collapse
Three people were still missing after a suspected gas explosion brought down a 19th-century house in Görlitz, where two initially feared trapped were later found safe.
Rescue teams worked through the night in Görlitz after a residential building collapsed in the eastern German city near the Polish border, leaving three people missing and prompting concern about a possible gas explosion. The collapse happened at about 5:30 p.m. Monday on James-von-Moltke-Straße, in the city center, where firefighters, police and the Federal Agency for Technical Relief moved cautiously because of possible gas leaks and the danger of more rubble giving way.
Five people were initially reported missing. Two of them were later found unharmed after authorities learned they were holidaymakers who were still traveling and had not yet arrived in Görlitz, according to police spokeswoman Anja Leuschner. That left three people unaccounted for early Tuesday as search crews continued to comb the debris.
The building that came down was described as a 19th-century, or late-19th-century, house that contained rental apartments and holiday accommodation. Its collapse has sharpened attention on the safety of older housing stock in historic city centers, especially buildings that have been adapted for short-term stays and mixed residential use. In a city like Görlitz, where aging structures are part of the urban fabric, the questions that follow a collapse are not only about rescue but about whether the building’s condition, renovation history and any previous warning signs were adequately monitored.
Authorities said gas readers were being used at the site as crews continued their search into Tuesday morning. The suspected role of a gas explosion made every move slower and more deliberate, as emergency teams balanced the urgency of finding survivors against the risk of secondary collapse. The rubble zone remained unstable, and the overnight effort reflected both the scale of the damage and the limits imposed by safety concerns.
Görlitz, Saxony’s easternmost city, sits directly on the border with Poland, and the collapse sent shock through a neighborhood that mixes old residential buildings with visitor lodging. As the search continued, the immediate focus stayed on the three missing people. But once the rubble is cleared, the larger accountability question will remain: how a late-19th-century building in a lived-in city center reached the point of collapse, and whether municipal oversight caught the danger too late.
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