ATHENS: Four American tourists visiting Greece were among six people confirmed dead on Saturday after a blast brought down the small Athens residential building they had been staying in near the Acropolis, officials said.

The explosion, which occurred at dawn on Friday in the popular Plaka district filled with tourist lodgings, was likely caused by a gas leak, according to the capital’s mayor, Haris Doukas.

The other two people killed were an elderly British man and his Greek wife who lived on the second storey of the three-storey building, Greece’s state broadcaster ERT reported.

The American family of four had been renting an apartment on the first storey and were preparing to go to the airport hours later Friday for their return to the United States when the blast occurred, according to the Kathimerini newspaper.

The explosion brought down the residential building and damaged properties and vehicles along the street. The New York Times reported that the US family was composed of a couple, their son and his girlfriend.

Greek authorities did not immediately give their identities, ages or where in the United States they came from.

On Saturday, reporters saw mechanical diggers moving debris at the site and thermal-imaging cameras deployed. “We are talking about an incredible disaster,” mayor Doukas said.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2026