At least four people died and 26 were injured after a suspected gas explosion blew out the upper floor of a department store in central Taiwan on Thursday.
The blast took place in a food court on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi store in Taichung City at around 11.33am local time, the Taichung Fire Bureau said.
Two of the dead were visiting from Macau, the city’s Tourism Office confirmed on Thursday. They were reportedly travelling in a family of seven. A third member of the family was severely injured.
Nearly 235 people were evacuated from the building and nearby structures.
The blast was so powerful it threw at least four people out the windows of the building in the Xitun district, Focus Taiwan quoted the bureau as reporting after speaking to eyewitnesses.
The explosion was captured by a CCTV camera on a street outside. The CCTV video showed the glass panels of the 12th storey blowing up and throwing debris on pedestrians below.
Emergency services rushed to the spot and dozens of firefighters were working inside the building to douse the fire and take the injured to hospital.
President Lai Ching Te called on “relevant units to clarify the cause of the accident as soon as possible” in a Facebook post and directed the city authorities to conduct speedy rescue work.
A part of the store was under renovation but it was not clear if the work was connected to the explosion, Taichung vice mayor Cheng Chao Hsin told reporters.
"If it's found there were illegal actions or parts that violated renovation regulations, it will be dealt with appropriately," Mr Cheng said.
The shock of the blast was felt in nearby areas. Taichung mayor Lu Shiow Yen told reporters at the scene that she felt the shock at her office nearby.
She said the fire bureau was focusing on rescue work first, but an investigation was underway and officers were checking whether there were other sources of danger.
Local media suggested the explosion may have been caused by a leak from a gas canister which was being changed at a restaurant or during renovations at the food court.
The incident came less than two months after nine people died in a massive fire at an under-construction food-processing building in Taichung city on 20 December.
The fire in the building being developed by PX Mart supermarket chain was caused by welding sparks and spread rapidly through a large quantity of foam panels on the site.
