A sudden explosion from a suspected gas leak blew out walls and windows in part of a northern Japanese town Thursday morning, killing one person and injuring 17 others.
There was no sign of a fire and investigators at the suspect a gas leak may have cause the blast, Koriyama fire department official Hiroki Ogawa said. Local media say a gas leak and explosion occurred at a restaurant.
So far, one person was confirmed dead and 17 others have been taken to hospitals. Two of them were seriously injured, Ogawa said.NHK footage showed only a skeleton left of a building, the steel structure gnawed and pieces of wall and glass scattered around. Several employees and customers at a nearby bank were injured, NHK said.
The explosion occurred in a crowded business and commercial district close to the city's main train station, where hospitals, schools and the city hall are also located. "I heard a 'boom!' and felt the ground shaking, so I thought it was an earthquake, but the shaking didn't last very long so I realized it wasn't," an employee at nearby Kuwano Kyoritsu Hospital told NHK. Nobody was injured at the hospital, although some of its windows were shattered.
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