Dancers miss gas blast by hour

Children were in a dance studio just anhour before it was destroyed in a suspected gas explosion.

Witnesses told of their shockthat theywereable to walk away alive after several buildings collapsed in New Ferry, Wirral, at about 9.15pm on Saturday.

Thirty-four people were injured, two seriously, in the blast which left debris scattered along the street and forced the evacuation of people from the surrounding area to a nearby church.

Restaurant diners told how they tried to help casualties in the aftermath.

Helen Hudson said she hadbeenin nearbyChinese restaurant with husband Steve and friends when the blast blew the front of the building in.

She said: “There was a man underneath a table whomy husband helped to get out. Another woman had a bad injury to her cheekbone.

“Itwasso frightening, we thought it was a terrorist attack. There was blood everywhere and dust everywhere. Our ears are still ringing now.

“We didn’t know if there would be another explosion so we thought we had to get out and we climbed through the front of the restaurant.

“The men were all helping the women get out and there were women with prams trying to get babies out.

“I can’t believe we walked away alive.”

Leanne Stewart, who lives near the site of the explosion, was in a pub and ran home to make sure her children, aged seven and three, were safe.

She said: “I was in the pub when I heard the bang

“The men were all helping the women get out”

and I came running out because I knew I had to get the kids out.

“I just ran in and got them. She added: “I think the front of the house is all gone now, I didn’t look whenI ranin to get the kids and we don’t know when we’ll be allowed back.”

Janette Williamson, who lives close to the scene on the edge of model village Port Sunlight, said: “I thought it was abomb– everything just shook.”

Chairman of New Ferry Residents’ Association Mark Craig said a row of four shops with a dance studio above had collapsed.

He said: “Just an hour before, there were children in the studio.”

He added: “The commu- nity is in shock but you can see the community spirit and everyone is pulling together.”

The two seriously injured people are being cared for at Aintree Hospital.

DESTROYED: Wreckage at the scene of a suspected gas explosion in Bebington, on the Wirral, where two people have been injured

Emergency services at the scene of the blast