The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
‘Little angel’ George, 2, dies in house explosion
Ayoung child killed in a suspected gas explosion has been described as a “beautiful little angel” by his parents.
George Arthur Hinds, aged two years and 10 months, died while two other people are in a critical condition in hospital following the incident on Mallowdale Avenue in Heysham yesterday morning.
Lancashire Police said they were called to the scene of the blast at about 2.40am and found two houses collapsed with serious damage to a third property.
George’s parents Vicky Studholme and Stephen Hinds were also injured but not seriously, police said.
In a tribute to their son, they said: “We are devastated at the loss of our beautiful George. He was so precious to us. We have no words to describe how we feel and just want time to ourselves to come to terms with what has happened. Our beautiful little angel grew his wings today.”
Police said two people remain in hospital with injuries described as critical.
Residents in Heysham described the noise of the blast as “like a bomb going off” with debris that covered nearby streets and fields.
Speaking to reporters at the scene, Joe Edwards, Assistant Chief Constable of Lancashire Police, said: “Shortly after 2.40am this morning emergency services were called to residential properties following reports of a large explosion at the address.
“There is significant damage to the houses, at least two have been destroyed and a third is significantly damaged.
“As a consequence of that a number of people have been injured.
“Tragically a young child has been killed as a consequence of what has happened and the thoughts of myself and all the emergency services are with the family at what is a distressing time.”
Ben Norman, the Assistant Chief Fire Officer of Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, said that fire crews remained at the scene and an investigation into the cause of the blast would be carried out “slowly and methodically”.
Lancaster City Council said that Salt Ayre Leisure Centre, in nearby Morecambe, was open as an evacuation centre for any residents who had been affected incident.
Resident Susan Faulkner, 74, who lives further down Mallowdale Avenue, said the blast was “like a bomb going off ” and that she was still “shaken” by the incident.
“I woke up with this huge bang and I thought someone was breaking into my house,” she told the PA news agency.
“The sound really shook me, I’m still quite shaken by it. I’ve never experienced that before.
“It was like a bomb going off, it was that kind of impact.”
Ms Faulkner said that her own property and others in the immediate area had been damaged in the “devastating” explosion.
“It was quite a blast, I live quite a way down there and part of my side door was blown in, my next door by the neighbour’s plates were smashed,” she said. “There’s been lots and lots of people and police around and everyone trying to help everybody else.
“There’s debris everywhere, all on the next streets and in the fields.
“I’ve been very lucky. When I see what those poor souls have had happen to them, it’s devastating.
“I’m really sad for those people, it’s such a sad thing to happen to them.”
Dan Knowles, who lives four streets away from the explosion, said he thought there had been an earthquake.
“My wife and I thought there was an earthquake which woke us, the whole house shook.”
A Gofundme page set up to help Mallowdale Avenue residents had reached more than £25,000 by yesterday evening.
Israeli air strikes in the heart of Gaza City have flattened three buildings and killed at least 42 people, making it the deadliest single attack since heavy fighting broke out between Israel and the territory’s militant Hamas rulers a week ago.
The Gaza health ministry said 12 women and eight children were among those killed in yesterday’s attack, with another 50 people injured.
Rescuers raced to pull survivors and bodies from the rubble following the assault.
Earlier, Israel said it had bombed the home of Gaza’s top Hamas leader in a separate strike.
It was the third such air attack targeting the homes of Hamas leaders in the last two days.
Israel appears to have stepped up its air strikes in recent days to inflict as much damage as possible on Hamas, as efforts to broker a ceasefire accelerate with the arrival of a US diplomat in the region and talks at the UN Security Council.
The military said it struck the homes of Yehiyeh Sinwar, the most senior Hamas leader inside the territory, and his brother Muhammad, another senior Hamas member. On Saturday it destroyed the home of Khalil al-hayeh, a senior figure in Hamas’s political branch.
Brigadier general Hidai Zilberman confirmed the strike on Sinwar’s house in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis to army radio.
He said the home of his brother, who is in charge of Hamas “logistics and personnel”, was also destroyed.
Hamas’s upper echelon has gone into hiding in Gaza, and it is unlikely any were at home at the time of
the strikes. Its top leader, Ismail Haniyeh, divides his time between Turkey and Qatar, both of which provide political support to the group.
Hamas and the Islamic Jihad militant group have acknowledged 20 fighters have been killed since the fighting broke out last Monday, while Israel says the real number is far
higher. At least 188 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including 55 children and 33 women, with more than 1,230 injured. Eight Israelis have been killed, including a five-year-old boy and a soldier.
Hamas and other militant groups have fired some 2,900 rockets into Israel since Monday, when
tensions over a holy site in Jerusalem and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families from a nearby neighbourhood boiled over.
Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes across the impoverished and blockaded territory, which is home to more than two million Palestinians.