At least three people have been killed and about a dozen are missing in an explosion early on Saturday at a block of flats on the English Channel island of Jersey.
“We now have, I regret to say, three fatalities,” Robin Smith, chief officer of the States of Jersey Police, said at a news conference.
The explosion, which occurred just before 04:00 GMT, caused a fire that was put out.
The police chief said a three-story building located near the harbour in the island’s capital, St Helier, had collapsed. Emergency services will continue to search for survivors through the night, Smith said.
Jersey Channel islands explosion pic.twitter.com/KqEUDtyqTo
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He said fire services had been called to the property on Friday night after residents had reported the smell of gas.
He did not comment on the cause of the explosion on the island off northern France but said it would be investigated.
He said 20 to 30 people had been evacuated and two “walking wounded” had received hospital treatment.
Jersey is a self-governing island country under British Crown Dependency and is not part of the United Kingdom itself. It has a population of 100,000 people.