A hero neighbour who helped rescue a woman from one of the properties damaged in a huge explosion in Swansea has described a chaotic scene which made him think “a bomb had gone off”.
The explosion happened at around 11.20am on Monday on Clydach Road in the Morriston area of the city. Emergency services have been at the scene all afternoon along with rescue teams. The latest from police as of Monday evening is that three people have been taken to hospital with injuries and one person - believed to be a man - remains unaccounted for. You can follow all the latest updates from the scene here.
The noise created by the explosion could be heard for miles around. Around 10 houses away, Daniel and Stephanie Hopkins were at home when the “chaos” started. Mr Hopkins ran to the affected properties and helped pull one woman from the rubble. You can get the latest WalesOnline newsletters e-mailed to you directly for free by signing up here.
Read Everything we know about explosion that destroyed Swansea house
“It was chaos,” he said. “It was literally like a bomb had gone off. It was everywhere. You could see part of the roof on the floor. Just strips of wood. You never expect this sort of thing to happen anywhere near you. I ran out to see if there was anyone still in the house. I got down there. There was one guy already helping the woman out of the house as I was there. She was shouting about her son. He was in the lane, he must have come down with the rubble.”
Mrs Hopkins said: “We went to the little one’s (their son’s) room and a light had come off the ceiling and there were cracks in the wall. My husband ran downstairs and he said a house has just fallen down the street. Then he left and ran into the house to help and the boy had already been pulled out. But the woman didn’t already know this and she was shouting ‘my son my son’.
“We managed to get her out. I was holding her up. She was completely traumatised and had chest pains, her head was bleeding. She saw her son then. My first thought was you just go and help people. We were told to evacuate. We made sure she was okay. The houses nearby were evacuated first. There was a woman walking around with a baby who lived close, she was really shaken and had just grabbed a blanket and milk.
"We asked them to come to our house but by the time we got them settled then the rest of us got evacuated. We grabbed what we could. The main thing that the woman and her son is safe. It was a miracle, their dog was also in the rubble but escaped and seemed fine. All we can do is wait at the minute. I grabbed one or two bits, overnight stuff. Everyone helps each other round here. That’s the main thing. The local chip shop is giving out free food, it’s nice to see people pulling together.”
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