Rescue workers recovered the body of a 25-year-old Romanian tourist from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building in eastern Germany, police told dpa early on Thursday.

    The search for two other missing people is continuing, a police spokeswoman said.

    The multi-storey building in the city of Görlitz, near the Polish border in the eastern state of Saxony, collapsed on Monday evening for reasons that remain unclear.

    Emergency crews found the woman buried under the rubble at around 10:30 pm (2030 GMT) on Wednesday, the spokeswoman said. Rescue operations were temporarily halted while a forensic investigation was carried out and the body was recovered.

    Authorities are still searching for another Romanian tourist, aged 26, and a 48-year-old man holding both Bulgarian and German citizenship.

    The building contained rental apartments and holiday accommodation, according to police. Initially, five people were reported missing after the collapse, but two holiday guests were later confirmed to have still been travelling to the site at the time of the incident.

    The cause of the collapse has not yet been established, although Görlitz Mayor Octavian Ursu said it appeared to have been caused by a gas explosion.

    Police said a gas leak was discovered a few hours after the collapse, complicating rescue efforts amid fears that gas was still escaping from the rubble.

    Gas pipelines around the disaster site were fully emptied, reducing the risk of further explosions and making the rescue operation safer, a police spokeswoman said.

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