Investigators examining the site of an explosion in the town centre of Shrewsbury say that rather than a gas leak causing the explosion, the blast might have caused the gas leak.

The Daily Mail reports that 12 people were injured in the explosion, which occurred near Welsh Bridge in the town. West Mercia Police said it was ‘a surprise’ that no none had been killed in the blast, which the West Midlands Ambulance Service called ‘considerable’.

Ambulance crews say that two people sustained serious injuries – a woman in her 20s was found lying in the street, having been blown out of her flat by the force. She was taken to Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham, suffering from serious burns to her head, neck and chest.

A man trapped in the rubble of the block of flats where the explosion occurred is thought to have undergone surgery for injuries to his spine.

A further five people whose car was near the building when the blast occurred were pulled free by passersby – a man in his 60s has a suspected broken arm, a female in the car has a minor head injury, and a woman reported as being in her 30s sustained a cut to her face. It is reported that two children in the car were shaken by the explosion, but otherwise unhurt.

Other members of the public caught in the blast were recorded as walking wounded and treated at hospital for hearing disorders and cuts.

Supt Peter Lightwood of West Mercia Police said that casualties from the building woke to a smell of gas in the flats. Police officers were on the scene two minutes after the blast and reported a scene of devastation. The  block stands on the corner of Bridge Street and Smithfield Road in Shrewsbury in a complex that included an hotel.

Police say that the cause of the explosion is currently unknown, but there had been ‘quite a significant gas leak’, which might possibly have resulted or been made worse after the blast rather than being the cause of it.

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