Blast destroys shop and home in English city, four taken to hospital

Pictures and videos posted on Twitter showed flames leaping into the sky from the site which was reduced to rubble.

“All emergency services are currently dealing with this,” the police force said in a statement. “Please avoid the area.”

The local ambulance service said it took four patients to hospital and its hazardous response team was at the site.

The city’s fire department said it sent six fire engines after the reports of a large explosion and a building collapse.

A picture used by the Leicester Mercury newspaper showed a blaze and the rubble of a destroyed building which the newspaper said housed a convenience store and a flat above it.

“We heard an absolutely massive explosion. It was pretty frightening,” the Mercury quoted an unidentified resident, who lives a few streets away, as saying.

“We went to look out of the upstairs windows and saw loads of smoke, and then a few seconds later massive orange flames.”

There were no immediate indications that the explosion was linked to terrorism, broadcaster Sky News reported, citing unidentified sources.