Athens: Five people including three tourists were missing on Friday after an explosion in a building in Athens' historic Plaka district, the Greek fire service said.
The early morning blast on a small street in the vicinity of the Acropolis shook the area, which is normally busy with hundreds of foreign visitors.
The fire service said they were looking for two elderly people who lived in the building's top floor, and three tourists who are believed to have rented the apartment below.
"A search and rescue operation with a dog is underway to find anyone who may be trapped," a fire department spokesperson told AFP.
"We have learned that an elderly couple and three other people staying in a holiday rental were living in the building, and we are trying to determine whether they were there at the time of the explosion," she added.
The explosion, attributed at this stage to a gas leak, destroyed the two-floor building and also damaged neighbouring homes.
It broke windows in surrounding buildings and damaged cars parked nearby.
After several hours on Friday, no sign of the missing persons had been found in the debris.
Two women in an neighbouring building were hospitalised with minor injuries, state TV ERT said.
A third person who was passing by was also lightly injured, the station said.
