Hi °C | Lo °C Twelve people were injured after an explosion tore apart a block of flats yesterday.
Two suffered serious injuries, including a woman in her early 20s who sustained severe burns to her head, neck and chest when she was blown out of the building from the first floor, West Midlands Ambulance Service said.
Emergency services found the woman lying in the street outside the building in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, and airlifted her to Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham.
A man believed to have become trapped by rubble on the ground floor was taken to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital with suspected spinal injuries, an ambulance service spokesman said.
Five people who were in a car outside the building when the explosion happened were trapped by rubble and pulled free by bystanders, the spokesman said.
All five were taken to Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
A number of people described as walking wounded were also taken to hospital suffering from minor cuts and ringing sounds in their ears.
“It was quite a considerable explosion,” the ambulance service spokesman said.
Superintendent Peter Lightwood of West Mercia Police said it was a surprise no-one had been killed in the incident, which occurred on the corner of Bridge Street and Smithfield Road, near Welsh Bridge.
The fire and rescue service is investigating what caused the explosion, he added.
