An explosion reportedly caused by a gas canister in a home rocked a street in downtown Salzburg on Saturday, and authorities said several people were injured, at least one seriously.
The explosion occurred at about 3:30 p.m. in a home on the Bachstrasse, a residential street, and Austrian media reported that it involved a bottle of liquefied natural gas.
A dispatcher who answered the phone at Salzburg’s main fire department told The Associated Press that paramedics at the scene had taken one person to the hospital with critical injuries and were treating others.
There were unconfirmed reports from the local Red Cross of multiple injuries.
Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, draws hundreds of thousands of tourists each year and is preparing to host a year of special events in 2006 to mark the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
