VIDEO Investigation into the explosion in Rahova. Over 30 witnesses heard / Investigators are looking for the epicenter of the explosion: “We need to see why it was so violent”
The aftermath of the explosion caused by a gas build-up in a block of flats in the Rahova district, Bucharest, October 17, 2025. Inquam Photos / Octav Ganea
The authorities have already questioned between 20 and 30 people in the investigation regarding the explosion that occurred on Friday in a block of flats in the Rahova neighborhood, Sector 5 of the capital, the director of the Criminal Investigations Department, police chief Gheorghe Cristian, said on Saturday, quoted by Agerpres.
“The people who have been interviewed at the moment are quite a lot, over 20-30. I could not tell you an exact figure at the moment because everything is dynamic. That is, there are also people who (…) were tenants, there are people who learned about the explosion, heard the explosion, as witnesses, there are people who are in the hospital, those who are discharged, those who are recovering from, I know, the activities that took place there in hospital. No I would like at the moment to individualize or say which person with subject and predicate, that is from a private company, from I know a state institution”, said the police quaestor on Saturday.
He stated that measures will be determined after the on-site investigation is completed.
“We will establish the measures after we finish the research on the spot. It is very important to see what we will find up there, to see exactly where the epicenter of the explosion is, what could have generated it and why it was so violent because, without a doubt, it is a violent explosion”, Gheorghe Cristian said.
According to him, the on-site investigation will not end very soon.
“We are in the phase of on-site research, on-site research that we appreciate will not be finished very soon. (…) The conditions are quite unfavorable, in the sense that the block really has some essential, substantial damage. The ISC will also come to give us a verdict on how stable the construction is at the moment, after which we will start to penetrate the interior. (…) Activities are being carried out, all they are dynamic, and hearings of people, checks, identifications of people and so on”, he also declared.
The police chief also said that the working hypotheses are technical causes or human error.
“We are going to establish possible participations later. As for the working hypotheses, these can be technical causes, so to speak, I know, an equipment did not work… the equipment did not work maybe within normal parameters, maybe there was a human fault in the middle, but these things are dynamic. I repeat, this dynamic unfortunately will not end very soon, that is, during today's day”, said the director of the Directorate of Investigations Criminals.
The Rahova explosion
Three people died as a result of the explosion in the Capital and 20 were injured as a result of the explosion that occurred on Friday in an apartment block in Sector 5 of the Capital.
Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan informed that, according to the first estimates of the State Construction Inspectorate, this block will most likely not be rehabilitated and will have to be demolished.
The block had 108 apartments, in which about 400 people lived. The authorities have ordered the total evacuation of the building as there is a risk of collapse.
