Emergency services at site of blast; photo - PAP

A young man and two police officers were injured in an explosion in a Warsaw residential building.

Spokesman for the Warsaw Police Department, Inspector Maciej Karczynski, said the blast occurred when police were entering an apartment after receiving a call for help from a woman resident in a building located on Aleje Jerozolimskie, one of the major streets in the city center.

Witnesses say the injured man came earlier to see his girlfriend but had been confronted by her mother who called the police.

All residents of the several storey building had to be evacuated and police sealed off the entire street between two major downtown routes. Fire brigades rushed to the scene are checking the premises to establish the extent of damages and for other potential explosives.

The exact cause of the explosion is being investigated.  (ss)