Plaka: victim identification through DNA — investigations point to blast that started on the second floor

The identification of the six people pulled from the rubble of the Plaka building is underway, through comparison of DNA with genetic samples taken from their family members, in cooperation with the criminalistics directorate of the Greek Police. As Newsit reports, the process of recognizing the victims of the fatal explosion is being carried out with forensic methods, due to the severe condition of the bodies.

The four tourists staying in the short-term rental apartment on the first floor were Americans — two of them brothers of Albanian origin, traveling with their partners. The elderly couple on the second floor consisted of a Greek woman and a British man — a story of joy over a wedding and a pregnancy, turned into tragedy.

New investigation data shows the explosion started on the second floor: that apartment was the only one with an active natural gas supply (kitchen, fireplace, boiler), while the first floor’s gas had been disconnected at the owner’s request back in 2021. The extensive blast-wave damage at the height of the second floor supports the gas-leak scenario, though authorities stress this hypothesis still requires verification.

A unit of 10 fire-crime officers is documenting the scene, while all materials — pipes, gas meters — will be collected by Monday. Expert assessors will be appointed, and the preliminary investigation is conducted under the supervision of the Prosecutor of the Athens Court of First Instance.

OASP head Efthymios Lekkas called the rescue operation “exemplary,” compared the building’s collapse to Beirut’s, and described the old building as an extremely vulnerable monument with no structural skeleton — details shedding light on the scale of the catastrophe that struck the historic heart of Athens.