Two people are feared dead and dozens injured after a powerful explosion destroyed a plastics factory in Scotland’s largest city of Glasgow, emergency services said.
Up to 20 people were thought to be trapped in the rubble and another 60 injured when the four-storey building collapsed after the explosion, which media reports said is believed to have been caused by a gas leak.
”At midday today [11am GMT on Tuesday], an explosion occurred at Stockline Plastics and caused considerable damage to the property,” said a police spokesperson.
”It is reported that a number of people are trapped within the premises but it is unknown at this stage how many,” he added.
The cause of the blast was not immediately known.
Officials ruled out a terrorist attack.
Firefighters and police officers could be seen searching through the rubble of the building while passers-by helped treat survivors.
The worst of the casualties were taken away on stretchers by paramedics.
Dozens of workers and onlookers gathered in the street outside the factory gates. The building was all but destroyed in the blast with rubble collapsing on to parked cars.
”I heard a loud explosion and ran out of the store,” said one woman who was shopping nearby. ”I could hear people screaming and there were people running about covered in blood.
”There were people buried in the rubble. They were screaming for help — it was horrific.”
A spokesperson for Glasgow’s ambulance service said it had three special operations teams, plus a mobile control unit that specialises in handling major incidents, at the scene of the blast, along with 16 ambulance crews.
One survivor said a meeting was being held in an upstairs room of the building when the explosion occurred.
”My boss is still in there,” said Daniel Gilmour, who suffered cuts to the head. ”He was holding a conference in the conference room upstairs.”
Gerry McGuinness (44), a technician who was working at a nearby dental laboratory, ran to the scene immediately after the blast.
”I just heard a massive explosion,” he said. ”It was really loud, it sounded like a bomb going off. It nearly shook me off my seat, the blast was so strong.”
”We ran up and started taking some of the bricks away. There were four guys and one girl trapped under the rubble. We couldn’t see them but they were screaming at us for us to help them,” he added.
”We were trying to move the bricks when a man came and told us to stop because it may be unsafe, then the police arrived. If anyone gets out of that alive, they’ll be lucky.”
Mary Morrow, who works at a hairdressing salon opposite the factory site, said: ”We just heard an explosion, it was absolutely colossal. It shook the windows of the shop. We ran out to see what had happened but all we could see was a massive cloud of smoke and dust.” — Sapa-AFP