The Bulgarian Embassy in Belgium has stated that no Bulgarians were killed in recent collapse of an apartment building in the Belgian town of Liege.

After earlier reports that 4 Bulgarians had perished in the collapse the Bulgarian Embassy was quoted by Bulgarian National Radio as saying no Bulgarians are among the dead.

Mehmet Calik, the owner of the block, denied rumors that the buildings housed illegal immigrants. "More people lived here than were officially registered, that is true," Belgian daily De Standaard reported.

Asked about the possible presence of several Bulgarians, he said "but they are not illegal immigrants. Bulgaria is part of the European Union, isn't it?"

Two Bulgarian women, who were among the 21 injured in the blast, told authoirities that there were another four Bulgarians in the building at the time of the collapse.

“This gives us grounds to believe that these four Bulgarians are among the twelve casualties of the incident,” Deputy Foreign Minister Marin Raykov told the local Novinar daily earlier Monday.

The charred bodies have not been identified yet. Twelve people died as the explosion tore through the building at around 0200 local time last Wednesday, starting a fire. Then the five-storey building collapsed at around 0700.

Officials said the explosion was probably caused by a gas leak.

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