4 injured after explosion, fire in downtown Tokyo
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Follow topic:
TOKYO – Four people were injured in a blast and a blaze on Monday in a central Tokyo building, the city’s fire department said, with footage showing flames and smoke emerging from a second-floor business.
The fire started in a building in a restaurant area of the bustling Shimbashi district at around 3.20pm (2.20pm in Singapore).
“The sound of an explosion was also heard. A total of 32 fire trucks are at the scene,” a fire department spokesman told Agence France-Presse, declining to be named.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said four people – two passersby and two employees of a restaurant where the explosion reportedly took place – had minor injuries, Xinhua reported.
Xinhua reporters said they heard the blast while driving past an intersection less than 50m away from the scene, and then saw a lot of fragments flying out of a room on the second floor of the building.
A burst of smoke was spotted in the room accompanied by a slight smell of gas before a fire spread quickly, the reporters said.
They said they saw three people escaping via the emergency exit, with their hair and clothes partly burned.
According to the fire department, the second and third floors of the building were burned down, with some 31 engines dispatched to extinguish the fire.
Officials are investigating the cause of the fire.
“The sound was deafening. It was as if something huge was dropped from the top of the building. It was an incredible bang,” an eyewitness told public broadcaster NHK.
“Pieces of paper were scattered all over at the nearby intersection. From the way they were scattered, I immediately knew it was an explosion,” he said.
The scale of the damage appeared limited and the fire was not spreading. AFP, REUTERS, XINHUA
