Work has carried on through the night at the scene of an explosion that left one man dead and three people needing hospital treatment. The body of a man has been recovered from the scene of the suspected gas explosion in Swansea, police said.
The man had previously been unaccounted for and his family have now been informed, according to South Wales Police.
An adult and a boy who needed hospital treatment at nearby Morriston Hospital have since been discharged. Live updates from the scene today.
When the alarm was raised
Emergency services were called at just after 11.20am on Monday to a blast at an address on the junction of Clydach Road and Field Close in Morriston.
Police said other neighbouring properties were also damaged by the explosion, which shook houses miles from the scene and left debris strewn across the surrounding area.
People in neighbouring areas as far away as Cimla, nine miles from the scene, reported hearing a loud explosion and shoppers in a nearby Lidl said that the whole building shook.
Local residents said roof tiles rained down in gardens and bits of pipe smashed windows.
One man confirmed dead
Three other people were taken to hospital after the blast, with images from the scene showing one house collapsed and another badly damaged. Morriston Hospital said two adults and a child were brought to A&E after neighbours said they saw a boy being pulled from the rubble.
One person was unaccounted for, but on Monday evening police confirmed the devastating news that the body of a man had been found.
Superintendent Steve Jones said: "Our thoughts are with the family of the man who has lost his life and those affected by this tragic incident. We are doing everything possible to reduce the impact on the wider community and allow access to homes as quickly as possible where it is safe to do so. I would like to thank the community for the patience and support during what is a challenging incident."
Sioned Williams, Member of the Senedd for the South Wales West region, said the missing man had been described locally as "very well liked" and "such a friendly person".
"He apparently used to sit outside on the step and talk to people in the street. A lot of people knew him and liked him, and are deeply, deeply concerned for him," the Plaid Cymru politician said.
Andy Williams, who has lived on the street for 25 years, became emotional saying: "He's only lived here for a couple of years but I knew him well. He's just a nice guy, a lovely guy, he's always outside chatting."
Teenage boy and his mother pulled from the rubble
Neighbour Christopher Yeoman, 55, who said he lives three doors down from the blast, helped rescue a teenage boy and his mother from the rubble.
Mr Yeoman told the PA news agency: "I saw the debris explode outward into the street even before I heard it, then I heard this massive bang. The house exploded and everything flew out into the road, hitting the postman who was driving by and the flats opposite.
"Everything shook and all my pictures fell off the wall, and I was first most worried about my 95-year-old mother who was downstairs. I ran into the street and we got a teenage boy who was in the debris out, and me and another neighbour ran in because we could hear a woman shouting from inside.
"When we got to her, she was hysterical and worried about her cat and dog but we managed to find the puppy in the crate and get it out as well. We got them both to a bus that had stopped to help, because this was before the ambulance and police had turned up.
"They were both hysterical but seemed to calm down once they were together."
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Investigation into the cause
An investigation is now under way to establish the cause of the incident and the Health and Safety Executive has been informed.
In a statement, Wales & West Utilities, which maintains the gas network across Wales and the south-west of England, said: "We were called to reports of an explosion at a property in the Clydach Road area of Swansea and immediately sent a team of engineers.
"On arrival, we found that there had been severe structural damage to the property and the emergency services were in control of the scene.
"We do not yet know the cause of the explosion and our engineers will continue to support the emergency services as they carry out their work."
Mid and West Fire Service teams have been working to isolate the gas mains.
Community has rallied to help each other
An emergency centre for residents has been set up in Morriston Memorial Hall, a nearby community centre with more than 20 households needing temporary accommodation.
There is also concern that it may be some time before some of those households can return home safely.
Andrea Lewis, deputy leader of Swansea Council and Labour member for Morriston, has been spending time with the residents who were not allowed back into their homes last night.
She told BBC Radio Wales' Breakfast show: "There has been an incredible multi-agency approach. We have put 21 households into temporary accommodation. The businesses in the local community were feeding people when they were in the welfare centre and everybody really pulled together.
"The update I had at 1am was very much reflective of the resilience of the community. They have been amazing considering this terrible incident that they have been through. They kept calm and carried on and they have been incredible."
Talking about the residents who were looked after at a welfare centre on Monday afternoon, she said: "People were utterly shocked. There were roof tiles raining down, pipes crashing through rooves. They were relieved but also deeply concerned and upset about the person who was missing."
The welfare centre where people were looked after in the aftermath of the explosion closed at 1am, after nine households were put into temporary accommodation because their homes were not deemed safe.
Deputy council leader Andrea Lewis told BBC Wales that Mid and West Fire Service are working to isolate the main gas mains.
"Once those poperties are deemed to be safe, we will do everything we can to move people back home," she said. "However, we appreciate that some of those properties are too badly damaged so some people might be in temporary accommodation for quite some time. Until those properties are safe for them to return."
Support will be offered throughout the day with local churches offering help. There will be an emergency meeting at 9am on Tuesday to work out a plan of how to deal with all the offers that are pouring in.
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