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Crews search hotel explosion rubble
08.01.09
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Firefighters are searching through the wreckage of a suspected gas blast at a hotel which left three people seriously injured.
Emergency services were called to the Drumtochty Arms Hotel in Auchenblae, Aberdeenshire, after the blast caused the building's partial collapse.
Everyone in the hotel is believed to have been accounted for, but fire chiefs were conducting a precautionary "search and rescue operation" through a 5ft pile of rubble.
One person had to be rescued from a roof skylight following the "significant explosion", fire chiefs said.
A man in his 20s, another man in his 50s and a woman were taken by ambulance to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
NHS Grampian said all three had suffered "serious injuries".
It it thought they may have been customers at the hotel bar.
Police said the explosion appeared to be linked to a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder at the back of the building.
A joint inquiry by Grampian Police and Grampian Fire and Rescue Service is under way.
Andy Couselant, area commander with Grampian Fire and Rescue Service, said: "We will check for as long as it takes to make sure there is no-one there."
