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| Major incident declared after ‘massive explosion’ shakes homes in Leicester | Major incident declared after ‘massive explosion’ shakes homes in Leicester |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Police have declared a “major incident” after reports of a “massive explosion” near at a shop on a major road in Leicester. | |
| Residents living close to a Londis on Hinkley Road, about a mile from the city centre, reported their houses shaking and police advised people to stay away from the area. | |
| Photographs of the shop showed flames erupting from the roof and smoke billowing into the road. | |
| The emergency services said they were called to reports of a blast shortly after 7pm and six fire engines were sent to the scene. | |
| The incident was being treated as a “search and rescue operation”, they said. | |
| John Alexander, a local resident and journalist who had been evacuated after the blast told the BBC, the shop and the flat above it had been ”completely flattened” by the explosion. | |
| He was sitting in his front room when he felt “a huge shock” that sounded like a ”rush of air”, he said. | |
| When he came out of his house, he saw rubble lying across four lanes of the road. A cordon had been set up and around 60 houses have been evacuated, he said. | |
| People had been drinking in a pub near the shop and smoking in a nearby bus shelter at the time of the blast. | |
| Leicestershire Police said in a statement: "There has been a major incident on Hinckley Road, Leicester. All emergency services are currently dealing with this. Carlisle Street and part of Hinckley Road have been closed Please avoid the area." | |
| More follows… | More follows… |