Huge explosion rocks power plant in US

WASHINGTON - A huge explosion rocked a gas-fired power plant in the northeastern US state of Connecticut Sunday, resulting in numerous casualties, media reports said.

Dozens of ambulances and fire trucks were rushing to the scene at the town of Middletown, 150 km northeast of New York City.

Further details were not immediately known about the cause of the explosion.

The local television station WQAD said the blast was so powerful that people felt it 20 km away, many thinking that an earthquake had struck.

The initial reports said the facility is a gas-fired power plant belonging to the Kleen Energy Systems company. A large amount of gas was believed to be in storage at the site, where as many as 100 people were believed to be working.

The site’s main building was levelled by the explosion, eyewitness reports said.

Television images from a distance showed black smoke rising from the site.

Danbury Times reported in its online edition there were at least two dead in the accident and that as many as 75 people were injured.

The newspaper cited one eyewitness as saying the blast created a “massive ball of fire 40 to 50 feet into the air”.