A man was killed in a gas explosion which destroyed a terraced house on Sunday, Nottinghamshire police said. One person was believed to be missing as firefighters searched through the rubble. The explosion seriously injured four others, including two children.
The blast, which devastated a house on a street in the town of Newark and damaged nearby properties shortly after 5pm, was described by witnesses as like a bomb going off.
With rubble littering the street, one man was dragged out of the debris by neighbours while the local fire service said that specialist rescue teams believed they had located one person in the remains and were continuing to look for another.
Fire appliances, air ambulances and specialist teams from Lincolnshire were sent to the scene on Wright Street following initial reports of a suspected gas explosion at about 5.10pm.
More than 100 people were evacuated from nearby homes as a precaution.
Audie Cashin, a local man who was one of the first on the scene, told reporters how he and others located one man in the rubble and helped to drag him out before going in search of another.
"He said his dad was in the cellar. I am trying to find his dad. I am kicking the door down. I couldn't find him. Then all I heard was 'get out, get out, the house is on fire' and there was firemen all around," he said.
Cormac Fleming, who lives on the street, told the BBC the house had exploded in front of him and his family as they were walking past, knocking his son off his bicycle.
"I then noticed a curtain moving in the house next door. I, and another man, smashed the window and next thing I was being handed a newborn baby," he said.
"One house was completely destroyed and the house next to it was half-blown up."
Fleming said that a five-year-old and his mother, who had cuts, then came out of the property neighbouring the house that had been destroyed in the blast.
Local people living in the area were being asked by police to remain indoors and ensure windows were closed to reduce the effects of dust and any gas fumes.
The property that was destroyed was said by neighbours to have been occupied by a couple and a small child.