SHOP BLAST FIREBALL
Five injured as giant explosion reduces store to rubble
FIVE people were in hospital last night after a huge explosion ripped through a city centre shop.
Dramatic pictures showed the convenience store reduced to rubble as enormous flames leapt into the night sky.
Two of the injured are critical. Neighbours said they heard a ‘massive explosion’ and felt their homes shake during the blast, which destroyed the shop, the flat above and a bus stop opposite. Sixty homes were evacuated as police shut surrounding roads. The cause of the explosion in Leicester remained unclear last night. Emergency services rushed to the scene, a former Londis store in a terrace of shops, at 7pm.
Quick- thinking residents instantly charged into the rubble thrown across the road to begin the hunt for survivors as flames leapt 30ft in the air. Jonny Halliwell said: ‘ People grabbed blankets and ran towards the fire to try to help people. There was rubble and shop fittings everywhere.
‘I saw people pulling up chunks of rubble and searching for people underneath.’ He told the Daily Mirror: ‘It was like someone took a delete tool on a computer and just erased the whole building.’
It is believed the shop, which had been a Londis outlet until a few weeks ago, was open at the time and at least two workers were inside. Farrah Alli Hameed, 30, said: ‘My friend Aram opened the shop only a month ago with another owner.
‘I know he was away but there were two girls who worked there and I’m worried one may be in the rubble.
‘I’m not sure if it was a gas explosion, maybe something to do with the electrics... they had a lot of spirits in there.’