Ten die after explosion at petrol station in Donegal

A tiny village in Ireland was engulfed in silence and loss yesterday after 10 people died, including two teenagers and a young child, in a huge explosion at a petrol station.

Villagers huddled in small groups in Creeslough, county Donegal, as the toll climbed overnight from three to seven and then 10, with police saying they do not expect to find anyone else. Eight people remain in hospital, at least one is critically ill. A five-year-old girl was said to have been killed along with her father as she went to buy her mum a birthday cake.

Little noise could be heard in the narrow streets apart from the low rumble of machinery being used in the painstaking operation of sifting through tonnes of rubble. At the village church of St Michael’s, a small curved white building dug into the rolling Donegal hillside, Fr John Joe Duffy held a special mass for the victims and their families yesterday.

At the service he said the disaster had “broken the heart of the community”. The congregation was told there was a “tsunami” of grief in the community.

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Fr Duffy said: “From our hearts, with all our hearts and with all our souls, we pray for those who have died, we pray for those who were injured, we pray for all who were involved … we pray for those who are there continuing to help and have helped since yesterday.

“We pray also for those family members who are bereaved and we pray for those who still are waiting news. We keep them all very much in our hearts.”

Four victims of the tragedy were last night named as teenage rugby player Leona Harper, 23-year-old former design student Jessica Gallagher, and Catherine O’Donnell and her 14-year old son James.

Gallagher lived in an apartment above the petrol station with her boyfriend, who was badly hurt in the explosion. He was rushed to hospital where he remains in a serious condition.

A friend of the couple told reporters: “Jessica studied design at a university in Paris and she’d travelled extensively around Asia. She’d moved in with her boyfriend above the petrol station shop and was at home when the explosion ripped through the building. Her boyfriend had been about to have a shower. I think he’s being treated in hospital in Dublin and is in a bad way.”

Police said their information so far pointed towards a tragic accident. The blast destroyed the building and a section of apartments, and shattered windows of nearby cottages.

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Garda Supt David Kelly described the explosion as a tragedy for the community which has left families devastated. He paid tribute to those killed and praised emergency services who assisted them from Donegal and Northern Ireland. “That is what it is to be in Donegal, we look out for each other,” he said.

The President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, expressed his shock at the “terrible tragedy”. He said: “All of our thoughts must go out to all of those who have been affected.

Irish premier Micheal Martin said that he will visit the village. “I think the entire nation is shocked at what has happened. It’s an unspeakable tragedy,” the Taoiseach told reporters in Cork.

“It’s very, very difficult to comprehend as people go about their daily lives, that something like this could happen in the middle of the day.”

Martin pledged support for the community in Creeslough to help it get through the “enormous trauma”.

He also paid tribute to the emergency services personnel including those from Northern Ireland who “at times in danger” rescued people and did everything they could to comfort people.

“That will be long remembered,” he said. “That solidarity and that sense of strong community between the essential services.”