Three arrested over copper-theft gas blast that killed 6 in Athens

Greek police arrested two Greek men and an Albanian national on suspicion of stealing copper gas pipes from a building in Athens's Plaka district, in doing so causing a gas leak that led to an explosion which killed 6 people on 25 September, authorities said.

Investigators with the fire brigade's crime investigation unit concluded the three suspects damaged the two-storey building's main natural gas supply as they removed copper pipe parts hours before the blast, Greek broadcaster ERTNews reported, citing investigators.

The explosion happened early that morning when a resident switched on an old light switch, igniting gas that had built up inside the building overnight, according to the investigators' findings. The building collapsed, and several neighbouring properties were also damaged in the blast.

Of the 6 people killed, 4 were American tourists, according to Reuters. Experts from the Technical University of Athens located the site of the leak, after which investigators reviewed security camera footage from the surrounding streets. The footage reportedly showed three people approaching the building at around 2am, roughly five and a half hours before the explosion.

Two of the suspects were seen entering the building's stairwell and leaving a few minutes later carrying a piece of copper pipe, investigators said. Investigators concluded that the attempt to remove the pipe damaged the gas line, letting gas leak undetected through the rest of the night before the blast.

The three suspects are expected to appear before a prosecutor on Friday. Police have not released further details of the specific charges they face, or said whether anyone else was involved in planning the theft.

The case has drawn wide coverage across Europe, with outlets in Austria, Germany, Bulgaria and Ukraine reporting on the arrests alongside Greek, Cypriot and British media, reflecting the scale of attention the blast attracted since September.