1killed, 6 injured after explosion at Rotterdam port

One person was killed and six others were injured following an explosion at an energy company in the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands on Thursday, the company confirmed, reported Xinhua.

A spokesperson for Gunvor Energy, a Dutch subsidiary of Switzerland-based Gunvor Group, told Xinhua that the "incident" occurred at around 11:30 a.m. local time during maintenance work on a storage tank.

"As a result, there was one fatality and six people were taken to hospital for further examination," the spokesperson said.

Rotterdam police confirmed that an explosion occurred in the Europoort area of the Port of Rotterdam but did not initially identify the company involved. The Port of Rotterdam Authority later confirmed with Xinhua that the incident occurred at the Gunvor Energy facility.

"The explosion appears to be a workplace accident for the time being." Rotterdam police said on social media, adding that the Labor Inspectorate will continue the investigation and they will handle further communications regarding the incident.

Multiple emergency services were deployed to the scene.

Earlier on Thursday, a power outage occurred in the Port of Rotterdam, causing systems at the Esso refinery to shut down. A transformer substation also caught fire.

However, the Rotterdam-Rijnmond Safety Region (VRR) said the explosion at Gunvor Energy was not connected to the earlier incidents.