Explosion damages building in Oslo's Økern district, one hurt

An explosion tore through a commercial building in Oslo's Økern district shortly before 2pm local time on Friday, blowing out at least five ground-floor windows and lightly injuring one person, Norwegian police said.

Firefighters rescued two people from the building's roof using a ladder truck, Avisa Oslo reported. Police evacuated the surrounding area and set safety cordons of 50 and 100 metres, operations leader Tor Gulbrandsen told NRK. The blast heavily damaged the ground floor, which an Aftenposten reporter at the scene described as badly wrecked, and light smoke was seen coming from roof vents in video published by VG.

Police initially suspected a transformer in the basement had failed, incident commander Tore Barstad said. Bomb disposal officers and grid operator Elvia inspected the transformer, but the theory had weakened about half an hour later, he said. Barstad said the cause of the explosion was now unknown, though that did not necessarily mean a crime had been committed, and that forensic experts were being sent to examine the scene. He said there was no danger of further explosions.

A van driver, Berhane Beyene, who was reversing outside the building to collect a bread delivery when the blast happened, told Aftenposten he heard an enormous bang and at first thought he had crashed into the loading ramp. He said the noise was far too loud to have come from his own vehicle, and that he was parked well clear of the ramp at the time.

Traffic in the area was partly closed off as police cordoned off the building, causing long queues on nearby roads, Aftenposten reported. The building houses an electric bicycle shop and a bakery on the second floor. Kenneth Bye, managing director of Fram Eiendom, which owns the building, told Aftenposten it was a purely commercial property and that, as far as the company knew, none of the tenants carried out activities linked to the incident.