New Delhi: Three people were killed and several went missing on Saturday morning after a blast flattened an apartment building on the island of Jersey, off the coast of northern France.
The blast occurred due to a suspected gas leak at 4 am (0400 GMT) in the Channel island's port capital St Helier, news agency Reuters reported.
CCTV footage captured a fireball rising to the top, followed by thick smoke.
Purported visuals surfaced on social media.
“We now have, I regret to say, three fatalities,” Robin Smith, Chief Officer of the States of Jersey Police, told a news conference, according to Reuters. The fire has been extinguished and the Emergency services will continue to look for survivors through the night, Smith added.
Smith said the Fire Services were called to the property on Friday evening by the residents and reported the smell of gas. He did not comment on the cause of the explosion and said that would be subject to investigation.
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According to the AFP, Jersey's gas supplier, Island Energy, said it was working with the fire service to understand what happened.
"We have a three-storey building that has completely collapsed — described from a demolition point of view as a pancake that has dropped almost straight down," Smith said.
He said around 20-30 were evacuated and two people who were walking with wounds received treatment.
"There is also damage to a nearby building as well, another block of flats that the fire service needs to make safe. It is a pretty devastating scene, I regret to say", he added.
A nearby resident Anthony Abbott toldthe BBC that the windows of his flats were smashed inward by the blast wave. "and there was fire everywhere outside".
"It was very, very distressing," he told the BBC. "I'm a little bit shocked, but we are lucky we're OK."
Jersey is a British Crown Dependency with a resident population of just over 100,000 people.