A suspected dynamite blast in the basement of a residential building in Yemen killed up to 19 people as they slept today and levelled their apartment block, an official said.
"We think it was dynamite," an official in the southern city of Taiz said.
He said the dynamite was thought to have belonged to a Yemeni contractor who used explosives in roadbuilding works to flatten hills and who may have stored it in the building.
The official said the explosion before dawn caused the collapse of a three-storey building with six residential apartments, and partly destroyed two adjacent homes. At least nine bodies were pulled from the rubble and rescue workers were looking for 10 more believed buried and feared dead.
Taiz province governor, Hammoud al-Sufi, put the death toll lower at 10 and said he did not believe more victims were trapped under the rubble.
Some 15 people also were injured in the blast.
Initial findings gave no indication the explosion was anything other than an accident, the official said.
Reuters