A woman in her 70s was taken to hospital with serious injuries after an explosion at a house in Bury this morning, Wednesday - with residents expressing their shock.
Emergency services were sent to Nelson Street following the incident, which happened at around 11am and appears to have damaged three terraced homes.
Video footage showed a fire at a property and a large cordon was set up around the area.
Residents have been warned to keep their doors and windows closed as smoke surrounded the area before and a strong smoky smell has been reported.
The cause of the incident has not yet been confirmed with teams from gas network Cadent investigating.
St Luke's CE Primary School on Morley Street was evacuated.
One parent said: "I was just on my way home as my child was sent home early from the school nearby, it's just devastating."
A Greater Manchester Police spokesperson said: "Emergency services are currently responding to an reports of an explosion at a property on Nelson Street in the Fishpool area of Bury.
"At this stage, a woman in her 70s has been taken to hospital with serious injuries.
"A 200-metre cordon is in place around the property and neighbouring homes.
"Local residents and the community will be made aware if they need to take any further action."
Head of customer operations (North West) at Cadent, Phil Hendrick, said: “My teams are in attendance at the incident in Bury.
"As the gas emergency service for the area, we are assisting the multi-agency response, as is routine in incidents like this.
"It is too early to say what caused this and we would ask people to avoid speculating.
"The priority right now is to keep everyone safe, which is why I would ask that people follow guidance offered by police and the fire and rescue service.
"We will make sure everything associated with gas on site is safe.
"If you smell gas, here or anywhere, always call the national gas emergency service on 0800 111 999 immediately, day or night.”
One resident, who lives a couple of streets away from the incident, said her grandparents live on the same road where the explosion happened.
She said: "My grandad and grandma were in when it happened and heard a bang.
"They went outside to see what happened and then the emergency services came round.
"They are fine, I went round to see that they were OK."
Another resident added: "It's awful, the house looks to have collapsed. It was an explosion that caused it."
Rhys Owen, who lives on nearby Brierley Street, said: "I heard a helicopter flying over about 11am and I could see a house on fire rising from the roof.
"I went round and there were lots of police and fire vehicles, an ambulance and a cordon in place."
He added that someone he knows that lives nearer to the incident heard a "bang".
Another resident added: "I was shopping at The Rock and noticed lots of smoke and a horrible smell.
"I can’t imagine how bad it must have been."
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