A WOMAN has been seriously injured after being trapped under rubble in a suspected gas explosion at a Bournemouth home.

The woman, aged in her early 50s, was inside her end of terrace Dorset house when a huge blast ripped through the property.


The explosion was so big it rocked several neighbouring homes.

A heroic neighbour rushed into the burning building and doused the flames in the lounge area with a fire extinguisher.

He helped rescue the homeowner who was said to have been trapped under rubble.

A fleet of fire engines, police cars and ambulances descended on Gunville Crescent on the Muscliffe housing estate in north Bournemouth following the blast at 9.45am.

The injured woman was taken in an ambulance to Southampton General Hospital.

Her condition is not known.

Several neighbours were evacuated from their homes as a precaution and a cordon put in place.

A video posted on social media shows the 1980s red-brick house largely intact but with its windows and doors blown out.

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Debris is scattered across a wide area outside, with a window roller-blind wedged up a tree.

One local resident said: "We were in our house and we heard a massive boom and the house shook.

"When we went outside all the neighbours were out there and one of the neighbours said there had been an explosion at a house down the end of the lane.

"A couple of guys who were working on a house nearby went to help get the woman out."

'MASSIVE EXPLOSION'

One neighbour said: "There was a massive explosion. All our neighbours immediately came out of our houses to see what had happened.

"I've heard her windows and doors were blown out. She was found under the rubble.

“My neighbour ran out of his house with a fire extinguisher and he went into her house to help.

“He said her sofa was on fire. It's just really awful."

'LIKE A BOMB WENT OFF'

Chele Holmes said: "I'm in the road behind and it was like a bomb went off, my whole house shook. Police, fires engines everywhere."

Another neighbour said: "My mum thought it was an earthquake. I was in the garden and the greenhouse shook. I immediately thought it was a gas explosion.

"There was a 50-year-old woman in the house with her two dogs. We hope she's okay. We all felt the shock wave."

A spokesperson for the South Western Ambulance NHS Foundation Trust said: "We were called at 9.53am to an incident in the Muscliffe area.

"We sent a double-crew land ambulance, air ambulance, critical care car, operations officer and doctor. One individual was taken by land ambulance to Southampton General Hospital."

Katie Lobban, spokesperson for gas network company SGN, said: "Following reports of an explosion in Gunville Crescent, Bournemouth, our engineers joined the emergency services on site earlier this morning.

"We understand the homeowner who was in the house at the time has been taken to hospital, our thoughts are with them.

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"It's too early to speculate as to what has happened, and we are working closely with the authorities to help discover the cause.

“Our engineers are carrying out essential checks to make the situation safe for the local community."



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