Two die in west London building collapse after explosion
Two people have died after a suspected gas explosion in a shop underneath some flats in west London caused a building to collapse, firefighters have said.
Five people, including one child, were rescued after the blast at the shop in the Southall area , while another 16 people were evacuated, the London fire brigade (LFB) said.
Neighbours described their shock after the explosion. Mohammad Rafiq, 78, said: “I heard it in the morning – it woke me up, it was scary. It sounded like a very dangerous blast, so I was scared. We didn’t sleep after that.”
Nurmila Hamid, 38, said: “The house shook and I turned to my husband and said, ‘What is that?’ And he said, ‘It’s a blast’. He went to look after taking the children to school – he said it was at a phone shop.”
LFB’s station commander, Paul Morgan, said his staff had found themselves dealing with a “painstaking and protracted incident, with firefighters working systematically to stabilise the building and search for people involved”.
He said: “The explosion caused substantial damage to the shop and structural damage throughout.” Firefighters asked people to avoid the area.
Police cordoned off either end of
King Street, where the explosion happened, as emergency teams worked to recover anybody who might have been in the shop, as well as surrounding buildings.
Pictures show debris jutting out of the building.
LFB said they were called just before 6.40am, adding that six fire engines and about 40 firefighters were at the scene. LFB’s specialist urban search and rescue (USAR) crews are carrying out the operation.
A spokesman said the windows of the shop were “completely blown out” in the incident.
The Metropolitan police said the incident was not being treated as suspicious and was believed to be a gas explosion.
The force said a large explosion was found to have taken place inside a shop and a man was found injured.
A London ambulance service spokeswoman said one person had been treated and discharged. Operations finished on Wednesday afternoon and were due to resume on Thursday morning.