On April 29, 2013 at around 10:00am

CEST CEST or cest may refer to: * Central European Summer Time (UTC+2), daylight saving time observed in the central European time zone * Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory * Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer, a subset of Magnetization transfer in M ...

(8:00 UTC), an explosion occurred in a building in the centre of

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. Th ...

. The incident occurred in a

townhouse A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residence ...

belonging to the Air Navigation Services of the Czech Republic on Divadelní street in

Old Town In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations. There are ma ...

Prague 1 Prague 1, formally the Prague 1 Municipal District (), is a second-tier municipality in Prague. It is co-extensive with the national administrative district (''správní obvod'') of the same name. Prague 1 includes most of the medieval heart of ...

, close to the

Academy of Sciences An academy of sciences is a type of learned society or academy (as special scientific institution) dedicated to sciences that may or may not be state funded. Some state funded academies are tuned into national or royal (in case of the Unit ...

and National Theatre. The blast could be heard across the whole city centre, as far away as

Prague Castle Prague Castle ( cs, Pražský hrad; ) is a castle complex in Prague 1 Municipality within Prague, Czech Republic, built in the 9th century. It is the official office of the President of the Czech Republic. The castle was a seat of power for ki ...

, 1.4 km (1 mi) away from the incident. 43 people were injured by the blast, one seriously. No one was killed. The resulting shock wave from the blast damaged windows in nearby buildings including the National Theatre,

Café Slavia Café Slavia is a café in Prague, Czech Republic, located on the corner of Národní street and Smetanovo nábřeží, next to the Vltava river and opposite the National Theatre. It was opened in August 1884. Poet and novelist Rainer Maria Rilke ...

, the

Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague The Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague ( cs, Filmová a televizní fakulta Akademie múzických umění v Praze) or FAMU is a film school in Prague, Czech Republic, founded in 1946 as one of three branches of the Acade ...

(FAMU), the

Faculty of Social Sciences Faculty may refer to: * Faculty (academic staff), the academic staff of a university (North American usage) * Faculty (division), a division within a university (usage outside of the United States) * Faculty (instrument), an instrument or warra ...

Charles University ) , image_name = Carolinum_Logo.svg , image_size = 200px , established = , type = Public, Ancient , budget = 8.9 billion CZK , rector = Milena Králíčková , faculty = 4,057 , administrative_staff = 4,026 , students = 51,438 , underg ...

and the

Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic The Czech Academy of Sciences (abbr. CAS, cs, Akademie věd České republiky, abbr. AV ČR) was established in 1992 by the Czech National Council as the Czech successor of the former Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and its tradition goes bac ...

. The blast was caused by a

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon ...

leak. According to a head of the Prague Fire Service, gas could be smelled in the area following in the blast, causing risk of further explosions.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prague explosion 2013 in the Czech Republic 2013 industrial disasters 2010s in Prague April 2013 events in Europe Articles containing video clips Explosions in 2013 Explosions in the Czech Republic History of Prague