One person dead, four still missing in German chemical explosion

“We are deeply concerned about this tragic accident and the death of our employee,” the head of Chempark, Lars Friedrich, said in a written statement.

The city of Leverkusen said that the explosion at the Chempark site, about 20 kilometres (13 miles) north of Cologne on the Rhine river, occurred in storage tanks for solvents.

The explosion at the industrial park for chemical companies shook Leverkusen, sending a large black cloud rising into the air.

Germany's Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance classified the explosion as “an extreme threat” and asked residents to stay inside, turn off ventilation systems and keep windows and doors closed, German news agency dpa reported.

Later on Tuesday, however, the Cologne fire department tweeted that measurements of the air pollution “do not show any kind of abnormality”. They said the smoke had gone down but that they would continue to measure the air for toxins.

City officials announced almost four hours after the explosion that the fire had been extinguished but that rescue crews were still searching for the missing.

Currenta, the company operating the chemical park, said the explosion happened at 9:40 am at the storage tanks of their waste management centre and then developed into a fire.

“Sirens were operated to warn residents and warning alerts were sent,” Currenta said in the statement.

Police in nearby Cologne said a large number of officers, firefighters, helicopters and ambulances from across the region had been deployed to the scene. They asked all residents to stay inside and warned people from outside of Leverkusen to avoid the region.

They also shut down several nearby major highways.

Daily Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger reported that the smoke cloud was moving in a northwestern direction toward the towns of Burscheid and Leichlingen.

Leverkusen is home to Bayer, one of Germany's biggest chemical companies. It has about 163,000 residents and borders Cologne, which is Germany's fourth biggest city and has around 1 million inhabitants. Many residents work at Bayer, which is one of the biggest employers in the region.

The chemical park is located very close to the banks of the Rhine river.

Currenta has three facilities in the region. More than 70 different companies are based at the locations in Leverkusen, Dormagen and Krefeld-Uerdingen.