The body of a missing British pensioner has been pulled from the rubble of a gas blast in Athens which killed six. 

The explosion on Friday destroyed the two-storey building in Plaka, near the Acropolis and Temple of ⁠Zeus.

A 77-year-old man and his wife, a 78-year-old Albanian-born woman, lived on the second floor and had been seen on their balcony minutes before the blast at around 7.30am.

Fire officials believe a gas leak in the second-floor supply line was the cause but a full investigation has been held off until the search for survivors is complete.

Rescuers today pulled the bodies of all six of the missing, including four American honeymooners – two couples in their 30s and 40s – who had booked the ground-floor flat as a short-term rental.

Relatives in the US had appealed for help on social media as they tried to trace the American victims. 

'The building that collapsed in Plaka about 13 hours ago is believed to have been housing my cousins Ian and Florida. They are on their honeymoon,' one desperate relative posted.

One woman from the group was the first body pulled from the rubble in Lysikratous Street. She was found in the bathroom of the wreckage in the early hours of Saturday and declared dead soon after arriving at Athens' Elpis Hospital.

TV footage showed a convoy of yellow ambulances crammed into the narrow street. One by one, rescue workers emerged from the ruins carrying stretchers, each bearing a body covered in silver foil, as onlookers watched on in silence.

Hours before finding the bodies, Athens deputy mayor Panagiotis Harlaftis had admitted hope was fading fast.

'We have released the sniffer dog and completed attempts to find survivors,' he said grimly, as crews pushed deeper into the building's 'inner sanctums, mainly the bedrooms. The explosion may have caught them in their sleep.'

Fire chiefs believe a gas leak on the second floor sparked the horror blast. Around 30 firefighters and six vehicles, including elite units from Greece's EMAK disaster squad, combed through rubble of concrete slabs.

Just hours after the explosion ripped through the street, firefighters rescued two women in a neighbouring building. Both were taken to hospital by ambulance.