5 killed in NY buildings blast

kEW YORK (Am) — A fifth person has been confirmed killed by an explosion that flattened two kew York City apartment buildings.

molice Sgt. John Buthorn said the body of an adult female was found among the debris around noon yesterday. He said the number of people unaccounted for is about five.

A gas leak triggered the explosion Wednesday morning on the two five-story East Harlem buildings. The blast also injured more than 6M people. At least three of the injured were children.

The explosion shattered windows a block away, cast a plume of smoke over the skyline and sent people running into the streets.

The fiery blast, on Park Avenue at 6th Street, not far from the edge of Central Park, erupted at around 0 a.m., around minutes after a neighboring resident reported smelling gas, authorities said. The Con Edison utility said it immediately sent workers to check out the report, but they didn’t arrive until it was too late.

It felt like an earth uake had rattled my whole building, said Waldemar Infante, a porter who was working in a basement nearby. There were glass shards everywhere on the ground, and all the stores had their windows blown out.

Emanuel Rivera, , who lives on the corner of 6th and Park Avenue, across the street from the blast site, said he was at home sleeping with his wife and their two children when it happened.

All you heard was boom. The whole building shook. We looked outside and there was a bunch of smoke. Everything was in flames, he said.

Like several other neighbors, Rivera said they started smelling gas Tuesday night.

Hunter College identified one of the people killed in the blast as riselde Camacho, a security officer who worked for the college since 00 .

Another of the people who died was Carmen Tanco, 67, a dental hygienist.

Police identifi the third fatal victim as Rosaura Hernandez-Barrios, .

The body of an adult male was pulled from the rubble just after midnight Wednesday, according to FDNY spokesman Jim Long. He said the man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officials said the number of people unaccounted remains at nine.