Explosion in Leicester

[Zaune]

BBC News

Six people have been taken to hospital after reports of an explosion and a fire in the Hinckley Road area of Leicester.

Police declared a "major incident" after reports of an explosion just after 19:00 GMT.

A police spokesman said: "At this stage there is no indication this is terrorist related."

Carlisle Street and part of Hinckley Road have been closed and people are being asked to avoid the area.

Angel Namaala lives opposite the scene and told the BBC she had heard "this big thud, like an earthquake".

She added: "The building had gone down and people were trying to help where they could by taking the bricks off. But the fire was getting bigger and bigger so people were told to leave the scene."

Six fire engines have been at the scene, Leicestershire Police said. Flames could be seen rising from a building in the middle of a parade of shops.

BBC journalist John Alexander said the explosion had "blown debris and rubble across four lanes of traffic".

He said the emergency services had cordoned off about 60 houses in the area and people had been evacuated because of an "enormous" fire.
'Pancake collapse'

A Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service spokeswoman said they were involved in a "search and rescue" operation.

The affected property was a two-floor building with a loft conversion that had suffered a "pancake collapse", she said.

All of the casualties have been taken to Leicester Royal Infirmary, the ambulance service said, and crews remain at the scene.

The hospital said four patients are in a critical condition and asked people not to attend A&E unless "absolutely necessary".

Alpana Marwaha, who lives nearby, told the BBC: "I heard a bang and the house shook. We could see the flames.

"You can still see the smoke coming, and the emergency services. There are a few shops there and it is surrounded by houses," she added.

East Midlands Ambulance Service said that crews from the West Midlands and Yorkshire had responded to other 999 calls near the border while they dealt with the incident in Leicester.

Please let it just be a gas leak and not a bomb.

[Crazedwraith]

I was kind of shocked. I'd just googled leicester as a friend will be going there and this happened

[Zaune]

Three people have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter. The police are still insisting it's not terror-related, so it's looking likely to be a gas explosion caused by negligence, unless the shopkeeper was storing ammonium nitrate for their allotment in the storeroom and let it get damp or something.

[The Romulan Republic]

Thank God its not terrorism. Far harder to politicize incompetence in order to advance an authoritarian agenda. Though that is unlikely to be much comfort to the dead and their families.

[Zaune]

That won't stop the redtops, though. If it wasn't some ISIS wannabe levelling the flat with an own goal they'll be insinuating the family of lazy scrounging "ethnics" (dogwhistle of choice now the actual N-word is beyond the pale) blew themselves up bypassing the gas meter or something. I've seen them spin a bunch of skinheads trashing a small local mosque being run out of some unused offices in a factory as some kind of Islamofascist conspiracy.

I should stop reading the comments, shouldn't I?

[The Romulan Republic]

Well, yeah, extremists will lie and rationalize things to fit their agenda.

But its easier to get the majority, or at least a large minority, to start listening to them and acting on it if its terrorism, even though people really should know better after the Iraq debacle.

"Fool me once...", etc.

[Lord Revan]

Well, yeah, extremists will lie and rationalize things to fit their agenda.

But its easier to get the majority, or at least a large minority, to start listening to them and acting on it if its terrorism, even though people really should know better after the Iraq debacle.

"Fool me once...", etc.

Yeah Extremist will try spindoctor anything to fit their agenda. You can't convince them otherwise nor should you. But majority of people will find it much harder if not outright impossible to swallow their claims if it's been proven to be something harmless.

[Zaune]

Three people are up on arson and manslaughter charges, including the owner of the property and the boyfriend of the cashier in the shop on the ground floor. Looks like a botched attempt to torch the place for the insurance.

[The Romulan Republic]

Sigh... its sad to think that petty greed resulting in the deaths of human beings is actually not the shittiest option here.

Throw the book at them.

[Zaune]

Apologies if this is a necro, but anyone who remembers this might like to know that all the conspirators have been convicted of murder.

Three men have been found guilty of murdering five people, including a mother and her two sons, in an explosion at a shop.

The blast destroyed a supermarket and the flat above where a family lived on Hinckley Road, Leicester, in February.

The men caused the explosion in order to make about £300,000 in an insurance scam, Leicester Crown Court heard.

Aram Kurd, Hawkar Hassan and Arkan Ali had denied five counts of murder in addition to conspiracy to commit fraud.

The killers had lit 26 litres of petrol in the basement of the Polish shop Zabka, Leicestershire Police said.cy to commit fraud

Shane Ragoobeer, 18, his 17-year-old brother Sean, Shane's girlfriend Leah Beth Reek, 18, and the brothers' mother, Mary Ragoobar, 46, were in the flat when the explosion occurred at about 19:00 GMT on 25 February.

In a statement read out following the verdicts, Jose Ragoobeer said he and his family's lives would "never be the same" and his wife of 22 years was "our rock".

Mr Ragoobeer said: "Not a day goes by when we don't think about Mary, Shane and Sean."

Molly Reek said of her sister Leah: "She was an amazing, inspirational young lady who was just starting out in her life adventure. Leah made a lasting impression on everyone who was lucky enough to know her."

Viktorija Ijevleva, 22, was working in the shop at the time of the blast and was also killed.

The five-week trial was told the defendants left Ms Ijevleva to die because she was aware of the insurance policy taken out less than three weeks earlier.

The investigation led police to trawl through more than 700 hours of CCTV footage, and examine more than 2,500 exhibits, 1,000 witness statements and 4,000 different lines of inquiry.

Footage examined by officers showed cameras being moved in the days before the explosion, and people escaping from a nearby takeaway moments after the blast, with rubble landing on the road as cars passed by.

During the trial, jurors heard how Scotty Ragoobeer, who was 15 at the time, survived because he was dug out of the rubble by police and members of the public just before the blast site was engulfed by flames.

Prosecutor David Herbert QC told jurors: "The explosion and the fire that followed was deliberately caused by these defendants who intended to profit from loss of stock, contents and future loss of business from the shop."

Ali, 38, of Drake Close in Oldham; 33-year-old Hassan, of Eld Road in Coventry; and Kurd, 34, of Hillary Place in Leicester, are due to be sentenced on 18 January.

The jury took just over 11 hours to find them guilty on all counts.