15 people have been injured in a gas explosion that ripped through a row of houses in northwest England.
Several homes collapsed following the blast shortly after 7am in Irlam, a town outside Manchester, witnesses and firefighters said.
'There's nothing left of them. There is debris everywhere, all over the place. Four houses completely flattened,' a local resident said.
An ambulance service spokesman said one woman in her 70s was in a critical condition after being taken to hospital with 30% burns.
Two adults and three children were also taken to hospital with minor injuries and three people were treated at the scene, two after being hit by flying glass and the third for injuries sustained when his ceiling collapsed.
People were given shelter in a nearby school, and a number of roads were closed.
