News / St Pauls
Explosion at house in St Paul’s
Residents of a road in St Paul’s have been evacuated following a house explosion that is being treated as suspicious.
The explosion happened at an empty residential property in St Nicholas Road shortly before 2am on Thursday morning.
Fortunately, there was nobody in the house at the time but a family next door had a lucky escape, with one resident seeing a man running away after the blast.
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Around midday on Thursday, more than half a dozen police officers were at the scene close to St Paul’s Learning Centre where they were joined by members of the fire service.
Some officers were undertaking door to door enquiries as workmen attached scaffolding to the affected house and the home next door.
Kuddithamby Uthayakumar and his family live next door to the house where the explosion took place. Photo by Martin Booth
Kuddithamby Uthayakumar lives next door to the house that exploded, and says he saw a person in the garden running way.
“It’s very horrible. I cannot believe this. I cleared my children and my wife (from the home)”, he said.
“I am very angry. I don’t mind dying at my age, but in the top room there were two children sleeping. This was something like a petrol bomb blast.”
Uthayakumar and his family are being temporarily rehoused by Bristol City Council, who he said he is incredibly grateful for their help alongside the emergency services.
It is thought that the house that exploded was up for sale, with a for sale sign put up outside only a few days ago.
“I checked if anybody was inside,” Uthayakumar added. “Thankfully no. But if anybody died, they don’t care.”
St Nicholas Road in St Paul’s is currently closed following a house explosion in the early hours of this morning. Photo by Martin Booth
There are no reported injuries at the moment, but investigations into the cause of the incident are ongoing. Gas and electric engineers have also attended the scene.
St Nicholas Road remained closed early on Thursday afternoon, including at its junction with Grosvenor Road. A diversion route has been set up via Ashley Road.
People are being asked to avoid the area while emergency services remain at the scene.
Anyone with information about what happened are being asked to call 101 and give reference number 5221074539.
Main photo: Martin Booth
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