Saxony Woman's body found after house collapses in Görlitz
After the dramatic house collapse in the Saxon town of Görlitz, the body of a woman has been found in the rubble. It was the 25-year-old Romanian tourist who had previously gone missing, said a police spokeswoman. The search for the two other missing persons is continuing.
21.05.2026, 02:23
SDA
Emergency services found the buried person in the rubble at around 10.30 p.m. on Wednesday, the spokeswoman said during the night. Work was then stopped for the time being. An emergency doctor determined that the person had died and the body was recovered. The criminal investigation department has secured evidence and is investigating.
The house, which according to the police housed rental and vacation apartments, collapsed on Monday evening for reasons that are as yet unexplained. As a result, five people were initially reported missing, but the whereabouts of two of them were clarified after just a few hours - the two vacation guests were still on their way there.
Race against time
However, two Romanian tourists aged 25 and 26 and a 48-year-old man with Bulgarian and German citizenship were still missing until the very end. The search for them was tireless and included the use of sniffer dogs, and in some cases the emergency services worked their way through the mountain of rubble with shovels and their bare hands.
It was a race against time. The German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) said: "The so-called 'golden rescue time' is usually in the first 24 to 72 hours - this is when the chances of survival are highest," explained Andrea Wirth from the THW regional association for Saxony and Thuringia.
Several wheel loaders, excavators and cranes were also used to recover debris. The strain on the emergency services themselves was high. There was a lot of dust and protective masks had to be worn at all times, said THW operations management spokesman Daniel Hofmann.
Cause still unclear
The exact cause of the accident in the town in eastern Saxony is still unclear. "But it looks like a gas explosion," said the mayor of Görlitz, Octavian Ursu (CDU). According to the police, a gas leak was found a few hours after the collapse of the Wilhelminian style building.
This also made the work of the emergency services more difficult, as it was suspected that gas was leaking from under the rubble. On Wednesday night, the gas pipes around the accident site were completely emptied. This had reduced the risk of explosion and made the work less dangerous, said a police spokeswoman.
Meanwhile, the search had been interrupted for safety reasons. Despite the emptied gas pipes, there may still be cavities with gas, according to the spokeswoman - making the work of the emergency services even more difficult.
Not much of the house is still recognizable. "The rubble is piled up to about the second floor. And it really is a pile of rubble, as you would imagine on a large demolition site," said Hofmann from the THW.
Germany's easternmost city
Görlitz is the easternmost city in Germany. It is located in Saxony's Upper Lusatia directly on the Neisse river and has 57,000 inhabitants. Since 1998, Görlitz and its Polish neighbor to the east, Zgorzelec, have formed a cross-border European city. Thanks to its historic, undestroyed old town, the city is also a popular location for international film productions.
The collapsed Wilhelminian style house stood in James-von-Moltke-Strasse near Görlitz railroad station. The area around the house was evacuated and cordoned off after the collapse.
