Rescuers found a body at a chemical plant in northeastern Spain on Wednesday, raising to two the number of those killed when an explosion ripped through the facility, triggering a massive blaze which raged through the night. Catalan regional interior minister Miquel Buch confirmed the latest death, saying a body had been located under the rubble at the site on an industrial estate in La Canonja, just outside the northeastern port city of Tarragona.

Spain's civil protection authority identified the victim as "an employee at the plant" reported missing on Tuesday. Hundreds of firefighters battled through the night to try and contain the blaze which erupted just before 7:00 pm (1800 GMT) on Tuesday.

Dramatic footage of the moment of the explosion showed a huge fireball lighting up the horizon, causing the ground to shake. One person died when a sheet of metal flung into the air by the force of the blast crashed into an apartment several kilometres away in the Tarragona suburbs, the Catalan government said. Two others at site were rushed to hospital with severe burns, rescuers and local officials said, while one person sustained less serious burns and five others were lightly injured.

"We heard a very large explosion, everything shook, the windows shattered. I don't know how I didn't get a heart attack," 85-year-old Lorenza Casado, who was in the living room of her flat in an apartment building located in front of the chemical plant at the time of the blast, told AFP.