More than 25 firefighters today battled a house blaze in Southend triggered by a massive explosion.

Glass and rubble was set flying across Hamlet Road following the blast at around 5am today (Tuesday), sparking the evacuation of neighbours.

Fire crews initially reported people trapped inside but the man who lives in the property was not at home.

Eyewitness Andrew Matthews, who lives three houses away, said: "It was like a bomb going off followed by a huge collapse of rubble."

For more on this story see today's Evening Echo

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.