LIEGE - Twenty people were injured in Liège, an hour away from Luxembourg in Belgium, in an  explosion that occurred in two buildings in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday. One building later collapsed with two people inside.

Around 07H05, one building, five stories high,  collapsed according to an RTBF journalist at the scene.  "We saw front and the building  deform before collapsing. There was a heap of rubble right up to the first floor," he said. "When it happened, firefighters were trying to reach two people alive in the rubble. However when the debris fell no firefighter was injured," he added.

The windows of several surrounding buildings were shattered in the explosion, including those of the Liège Town Hall. "I thought it was an attack. The damage was considerable in the room where I had been a few minutes earlier," said Alderman and Senator Christine Defraigne. "We witnessed the house engulfed in flames and people screaming," she explained to RTBF.

Residents were directed to an old church nearby, where an emergency shelter had been set up. According to RTBF, a gas mains alert had been reported in the neighbourhood the previous Sunday.   It is assumed that a gas leak was the cause of the explosion but this has not yet been confirmed.