One dead and three in hospital after suspected gas explosion in Swansea

Published

2 years ago

March 13, 2023

admin

A man’s body has been pulled from the rubble of an explosion in Swansea, South Wales Police said.

Three people were rushed to hospital after the suspected gas blast.

One person had been reported missing earlier, but police confirmed his body had been found.

Superintendent Steve Jones said: “Our thoughts are with the family of the man who has lost his life and those affected by this tragic incident.

“We are doing everything possible to reduce the impact on the wider community and allow access to homes as quickly as possible where it is safe to do so.

“I would like to thank the community for the patience and support during what is a challenging incident.”

Two properties were extensively damaged, and neighbouring houses were also affected. An investigation is under way to establish the cause of the incident.

A rest centre has been set up by the local authority at Morriston memorial hall, with emergency services supporting residents affected.

Councillor Ceri Evans, who represents Morriston on Swansea Council, said about 100 people had been evacuated following the blast.

South Wales Police and Mid and West Wales Fire Brigade have been at the major incident in Morriston and are appealing for people to avoid the area.

The blast was felt by houses miles away from the explosion.

Ioan Humphreys, who lives eight miles away in Rhos, Pontardawe, was on a Microsoft Teams meeting when he heard the bang.

“The house next door to me is having lots of building work done, so initially I thought it was a massive skip being delivered and dropped on their drive – it felt that close,” the 48-year-old Swansea University research officer said.

Another local resident, Sian Murray, told Sky News that she had never heard anything like it in her life.

“It was unbelievable. It was quite shocking actually. I walk past there practically everyday with the dog, so it is really scary,” she said.

Ms Murray described the community in Morriston as “very close knit” where everybody knows everyone.

She added: “[It is] shocking that it could happen. It makes you realise how dangerous gas is. I’m just shocked.

“I didn’t know what it was. It was like an earthquake. It was just really loud.”

Police had said they were called just after 11.20am on Monday to reports of an explosion at a property on the junction of Clydach Road and Field Close.

Eyewitness: A community in shock

There is a sense of stunned shock in the community of Morriston, Swansea, in the aftermath of a suspected gas explosion on Monday morning.

Heavy emergency service presence remains at the scene, where local residents tell me the explosion could be heard for miles.

A police cordon remains in place on Clydach road. Debris can be seen scattered all the way down the street for some distance beyond the cordon.

The number of emergency service vehicles at the scene is easily in double figures as of Monday afternoon, with heavy police presence continuing.

One resident who lives on the street told Sky News that he “thought a bus had come through the front door” when he heard the explosion.

Residents have been evacuated while the emergency service response continues, with a temporary refuge centre set up in a nearby community centre.

A search and rescue dog unit has arrived at the scene. A local JD Wetherspoons pub has been supporting officers by delivering free pizza.

Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service said crews from Morriston, Swansea West, Neath, Gorseinon and Port Talbot were called following “several reports” of a gas explosion.

In a statement, Wales & West Utilities, which maintains the gas network across Wales and the southwest of England, said: “We were called to reports of an explosion at a property in the Clydach Road area of Swansea and immediately sent a team of engineers.

“On arrival, we found that there had been severe structural damage to the property and the emergency services were in control of the scene. We are now working with them to make the area safe – as we do on all incidents of this nature.

“We do not yet know the cause of the explosion and our engineers will continue to support the emergency services as they carry out their work.”

The Welsh Ambulance Service also confirmed it attended the scene after receiving reports of an explosion.

UK

Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn budget after welfare bill U-turn

Published

50 mins ago

July 5, 2025

admin

Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn budget after welfare bill U-turn

Rachel Reeves has hinted that taxes are likely to be raised this autumn after a major U-turn on the government’s controversial welfare bill.

Sir Keir Starmer’s Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill passed through the House of Commons on Tuesday after multiple concessions and threats of a major rebellion.

MPs ended up voting for only one part of the plan: a cut to universal credit (UC) sickness benefits for new claimants from £97 a week to £50 from 2026/7.

Initially aimed at saving £5.5bn, it now leaves the government with an estimated £5.5bn black hole – close to breaching Ms Reeves’s fiscal rules set out last year.

In an interview with The Guardian, the chancellor did not rule out tax rises later in the year, saying there were “costs” to watering down the welfare bill.

“I’m not going to [rule out tax rises], because it would be irresponsible for a chancellor to do that,” Ms Reeves told the outlet.

“We took the decisions last year to draw a line under unfunded commitments and economic mismanagement.

“So we’ll never have to do something like that again. But there are costs to what happened.”

Meanwhile, The Times reported that, ahead of the Commons vote on the welfare bill, Ms Reeves told cabinet ministers the decision to offer concessions would mean taxes would have to be raised.

The outlet reported that the chancellor said the tax rises would be smaller than those announced in the 2024 budget, but that she is expected to have to raise tens of billions more.

It comes after Ms Reeves said she was “totally” up to continuing as chancellor after appearing tearful at Prime Minister’s Questions.

Criticising Sir Keir for the U-turns on benefit reform during PMQs, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the chancellor looked “absolutely miserable”, and questioned whether she would remain in post until the next election.

Sir Keir did not explicitly say that she would, and Ms Badenoch interjected to say: “How awful for the chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she would stay in place.”

In her first comments after the incident, Ms Reeves said she was having a “tough day” before adding: “People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday.

“Today’s a new day and I’m just cracking on with the job.”

Sir Keir also told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby on Thursday that he “didn’t appreciate” that Ms Reeves was crying in the Commons.

“In PMQs, it is bang, bang, bang,” he said. “That’s what it was yesterday.

“And therefore, I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber, and that’s just a straightforward human explanation, common sense explanation.”

UK

Diogo Jota and Andre Silva’s funeral in pictures

Published

2 hours ago

July 5, 2025

admin

Diogo Jota and Andre Silva's funeral in pictures

The family and friends of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva have been joined by Liverpool stars past and present and other Portuguese players at the pair’s funeral near Porto.

The Liverpool forward, 28, and his brother died in a car crash in Spain on Thursday.

Pictures below show the funeral at the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar church in the town of Gondomar near Porto. Click here for our liveblog coverage of the day’s events.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Miguell Rocha played with Jota for around ten years with Gondomar Sport Clube in Portugal.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

The former captain was seen wiping away tears as he read messages and laid his tribute down.

UK

How Britain’s most notorious gangster turned up at a charity lunch to fact-check a retired detective’s talk

Published

7 hours ago

July 5, 2025

admin

How Britain's most notorious gangster turned up at a charity lunch to fact-check a retired detective's talk

Britain’s most notorious gangster and the detective who pursued him have been involved in a bizarre confrontation…at a charity lunch.

Former Detective Superintendent Ian Brown was at a Kent golf club and about to give a talk on the infamous £26m Brink’s-Mat gold robbery when he was summoned from the stage by officials.

Mr Brown, who appeared on the award-winning Sky News StoryCast podcast The Hunt For The Brink’s-Mat Gold in 2019, said: “I go outside and they say ‘he’s here’ and I say ‘who’s here’ and they say that table over there in the corner, that’s Kenny Noye with a baseball cap pulled down over his head.”

Noye stabbed to death an undercover policeman during the Brink’s-Mat investigation, but was acquitted of murder, though he was jailed for handling the stolen gold.

After his release, he used a knife again in the M25 road-rage murder of motorist Stephen Cameron.

“They said what are we going to do?” said Mr Brown.

“I said are you serving food? Well, just use plastic knives.”

Although Mr Brown had not personally arrested Noye over Brink’s-Mat he had identified him as a suspect months after the robbery.

Years later he met him during an ill-fated TV interview in which he quizzed him about his role in the robbery.

He said: “He told me everything I wanted to know except the truth. He still insists he had nothing to do with it.”

The interview was never broadcast after the prison authorities threatened to send Noye back to jail for a breach of his parole.

Mr Brown, 86, said: “I went over to him and said ‘thanks for coming, nice of you to pop in’, but I don’t believe you’ve turned up with your sons and grandkids to listen to me telling how you killed a police officer.

“And he said ‘I want to make sure you don’t say I’ve been dealing drugs’ and I said ‘I’ve never said that Kenny’.”

The retired detective told Noye he wasn’t going to change his presentation just because he was there.

“He said ‘mate, I wouldn’t expect you to and I’ll come up [on stage] if you want me to’.

“Can you think how he’s turned up with his family to listen to somebody talking about you killing the police? Now, you put logic on that.”

The bizarre story emerged when I rang Mr Brown after I’d been told about the meeting.

I also wanted to ask him about the recent BBC hit drama series The Gold which retold the story of the Brink’s-Mat heist at Heathrow Airport in 1983.

“It was an absolute shambles, far too much dramatic licence and the real story was so much better,” said the ex-detective, whose job had been to follow the trail of the 6,800 gold bars to the US and the Caribbean.

He said he chatted to one of the show’s writers for a long time in a phone call but then heard no more.

“They invented people, changed a bit here and there and made it politically correct in so many ways. I’m just very sad that that is what people will believe.

“And I couldn’t work out who my character was supposed to be. I could have been one of the female cops.”

He also criticised the portrayal of Noye, now 78, as a likeable jack-the-lad character when the truth about the double killer with a volatile temper was quite different.