Search continues for at least 2 after apparent NYC gas blast

NEW YORK — Emergency workers are searching for at least two people still missing after an apparent gas line explosion leveled three Manhattan apartment buildings while investigators piece together what exactly caused the blast that injured 22.

Special canine units sniffed for anyone possibly trapped beneath the heap of loose brick and rubble on Saturday, two days after the blast. Detectives issued posters seeking information on the whereabouts of two men believed to have been in the sushi restaurant on the ground-floor of one of the collapsed buildings: 26-year-old Moises Lucon, who worked at the restaurant, and 23-year-old Nicholas Figueroa, a bowling alley worker who had been there on a date.

Their families frantically searched, showing photos of their loved ones and asking for help.

"We have just been walking down the streets, one by one," brother Zacarias Lucon told the Daily News of New York. "We are just so exhausted and upset. I don't know what happened to him."

Lucon moved to New York about six years ago from Guatemala; Zacarias Lucon told his parents on Friday.

Figueroa's family said they were holding out hope.

"My brother is strong," said brother Neal Figueroa told reporters. "Even if he is still in the rubble, I know he would still be in a predicament to get himself out and so I'm just praying for that."

Authorities also were exploring whether a third person was unaccounted for, Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said. But as of Saturday, no one else was believed to be missing related to the explosion.

"There's a lot more we need to learn," Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday, a day after the blast in Manhattan's East Village neighborhood.

It's possible that someone improperly tapped a gas line amid ongoing plumbing and gas work in one of the destroyed buildings, though investigators need to get into the basement to learn more, de Blasio said.

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