According to BBC Radio Shropshire, there has been an explosion in Shrewsbury town centre.
The emergency services aren’t giving much information but there have been injuries. Three people have been sent to the nearby Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and one has been airlifted to Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham. Three air ambulances and ten land ambulances are involved in the emergency.
Twitter is showing what a fantastic real-time news source it is. According to people on Twitter it’s a gas explosion near Rowley’s Mansion, which seems to be backed up by the presence of a Transco van.
There’s a webcam image here from the Theatre Severn towards the site of the explosion. Another webcam is located roughly opposite the site and pointed towards the Welsh Bridge and Theatre Severn.
An empty building has been destroyed by the explosion on the corner of Mardol Quay and Bridge Street – one of the busiest junctions in Shrewsbury. The explosion has closed Frankwell, the Welsh Bridge, Riverside, Bridge Street and the streets in between. The town centre is effectively closed and should be avoided. The explosion was in a flat above an empty shop between Shrewsbury Hotel and a photo studio.
The explosion was strong enough to send rubble over the river, damaging the Theatre Severn. It’s roughly double the distance shown from this webcam.
The BBC News channel was saying earlier that a person was trapped inside the collapsed building but that appears not to have been the case.
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Below is a map showing where the explosion took place and some pictures of the site. Theatre Severn and the Sixth Form College are also shown on the map – both were damaged by debris from the explosion.
For more pictures, check out this BBC “In pictures” page.
Crikey! I nearly went there earlier today and would have used that junction!!!
It’s the last day of the festive holidays before work starts again for the new year so it will have been relatively busy for a Sunday and that junction is manic at the best of times.
Nothing in the MSM.
[…] Wonko might be putting us on as a holiday jest but it appears that there has been an explosion in Shrewsbury. Click the link […]
I’ve just run it and linked here.
Looks terrible. What a start to the New year.!!!! Sounds like a gas explosion in one of the upper flats.
I am just glad my car was blocked in at home so that I couldn’t get out!
Give the MSM a chance. They have to find an angle to blame this on Global Warming.
Just updated with a link to some BBC pictures of this.
Someone was trapped in the building. Sam was trapped and was rescued by a civilian and a plain clothes detective. The flames were within feet of her when she came out. She was extremely lucky to have survived. Fortunately she does not know what happened.