Fresh explosions were reported at the Port of Hamburg in the early hours of Wednesday, only hours after firefighters announced that a massive blaze, which had raged for more than 40 hours, was finally under control.
The blasts, which occurred around 4 a.m. local time (0200 GMT), set off two containers that were quickly doused from a safe distance using water cannons. Authorities confirmed that no injuries resulted from the latest incident.
A spokesperson for the Hamburg Fire Brigade explained that water curtains were deployed to prevent the flames from spreading further. Roughly 30 firefighters remained at the scene on Wednesday morning, working to uncover smouldering embers and open containers to ensure complete extinguishment.
Officials said that a full investigation into the cause of the fire would only begin once all hotspots had been put out, with recovery efforts expected to continue throughout the day.
The original inferno broke out Monday afternoon in the Veddel district, southeast of Hamburg’s city centre, leaving six people injured. One woman who was initially in critical condition has since been stabilised, police reported.