1.
GV. Of troops and flames, and smoke.
0.06

2.
Flames and smoke.
0.09

2.
Wall falling.
0.11

4.
GV. Smoke, troops and debris.
0.20

5.
Victim carried away.
0.22

6.
German soldier hosing.
0.24

7.
Smoke and debris PAN to rescuers.
0.33

8.
MID SHOT.Ditto.
0.38

9.
Smoke, hausepipes and rescuers.
0.44

10.
Single wall.
0.48

11.
Fireman goes up ladder.
0.51

12.
Single fireman with hose.
0.54

13.
Troops and smoke.
0.57

14.
Mechanical grabbers.
1.02

15.
British troops clearing debris.
1.05

16.
CU. British troops.
1.07

17.
GV. Grabber and debris.
1.12



Initials JRG/V/CW



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Toiling in the search for bodies, German police, firemen and British troops worked round the clock Dec 13 after a dawn explosion ripped apart two blocks of flats in the German City of Dortmund, killing over 34 sleeping tenants.

Eye-witness said one of the blocks collapsed afterwards like a pack of cards. Flames engulfed both shattered blocks trapping several families. British troops aiding in the grim task are stationed in Dortmund. They won high praise from the Mayor for their work in recovering nine injured victims from the rubble. Among the troops were men of a rocket regiment who received an icy welcome from the City Council when they arrived to set up a rocket base at Dortmund earlier this year.

Two hundred people in the area were made homeless by the blast of the explosion - the worst of its kind in post war years. An eyewitness said: "I saw flames shooting upwards and heard terrible screams. Tenants crowded into windows for a few seconds as the staircase was wrecked. Trapped they fell back into the inferno. A husband, wife and child, clung to the remains of a chimney in their room and then fell into the flames."
Cause is believed to be a leaking gas main.