At least six people have been injured after a gas explosion completely destroyed a home in New Zealand.
The house in Christchurch was reduced to a burning pile of wood and rubble in the blast, which was felt for miles around.
Seventeen neighbouring properties had to be evacuated – five of which caught fire while the others were hit by flying debris.
Belinda Blanchfield said her parents along with other friends and relatives were inside the home at the time of Friday’s explosion.
She said: ‘It’s our worst nightmare. My parents are the absolute kindest people ever.’
Her husband Paddy said the occupants had been having issues with their gas fire in recent days and had been awaiting repairs, although it was unclear if those had taken place.
Local resident Brad Culver told Television New Zealand he thought at first a plane had crashed and ran outside.
Mr Culver said: ‘The house was in a complete pile of timber and rubbish, you couldn’t even conceive that it was a house. There was nothing left standing.’
Mr Culver said he started pulling people out of the rubble.
‘They all appeared to be okay, they were in shock but had superficial cuts, bruises, that sort of thing.
‘It didn’t look like any life-threatening injuries. Miracle, really a miracle.’
Another neighbour, Ann Gray, said she was standing at her kitchen bench just after 10 am when she felt what she thought was a massive earthquake.
She added: ‘I looked up and I could see all the stuff going up in the air so I came outside, it was all up in the air like it was huge and it was so high, bits of wood.
She added: ‘It took a while to come down, I thought it was going to come down on top of my house.’
The health authorities said six people were taken to Christchurch Hospital, but their conditions were not known.
Experts are still investigating the cause of the explosion.
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