A five-year-old boy who spent five hours trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building has been discharged from intensive care.

The boy, named in Dutch media as Kenan, was in the grill restaurant in Coevorden, Drenthe, with his father when it was ripped apart by an explosion at around 3pm on Saturday.

Emergency services rescued his father, who owned the restaurant, from the building, but Kenan was caught between two support beams and unable to move. A specialist technical rescue (STH) team from Drachten spent more than three hours picking away the rubble around the boy before he was freed and taken to hospital in Groningen.

The mayor of Coevorden, Bert Bouwmeester, said on Sunday that Kenan was out of danger. ‘He’s come through the night well and that is good to hear,’ said Bouwmeester, who later stated on Twitter that he was no longer in intensive care.

Burgemeester Bouwmeester: “Vanmiddag hebben we bericht gekregen dat het goed gaat met Kenan. Hij is niet langer op de intensive care en mag het ziekenhuis waarschijnlijk over een paar dagen verlaten.

— Gemeente Coevorden (@gem_coevorden) December 8, 2019

Sietse Smit, leader of the STH team that responded to the incident, said the rescue was a complex and delicate operation. Kenan was conscious and able to communicate with team members, but they were unable to reach him.

‘He was wedged between the wooden beams on the top floor,’ Smit told NOS. ‘The beams were hanging off the wall on one side, which left a very small space in the middle of the rubble.

‘Our first task was to get the situation stable as safely as possible to prevent the remains of the building collapsing further. Then we could take away the rubble around the boy piece by piece. We had to break up the larger pieces.’

Hypothermia risk

The rescuers also had to make sure Kenan did not succumb to hypothermia as night fell. ‘We kept calm and worked very cautiously, but we knew that there was someone who needed our help urgently,’ said Smit. ‘The boy couldn’t move and was getting cold.

‘Someone gave us an electric heater and blankets were fetched from the ambulance. That meant we were able to keep the temperature relatively comfortable so that the victim did not lose too much heat.’

Police are continuing to investigate the cause of the blast at the Ali Baba grill in Salllandsestraat. Neighbours have been allowed to return to their homes after the area was evacuated on Saturday. Nobody else was injured.

Two police officers have been reprimanded for sharing a selfie taken at the scene of the explosion on social media. ‘This is unacceptable and not how the police are supposed to behave,’ the Drenthe police division tweeted.

Er circuleert een filmpje van twee politiecollega’s die een selfie maken in #Coevorden. Dit is onacceptabel en niet zoals de politie hoort te handelen. De bewuste collega’s zullen hier zeker op worden aangesproken.

— Politie Drenthe (@poldrenthe) December 7, 2019