An explosion in England left at least one child dead after five terraced houses were destroyed in a suspected gas blast.

Firefighters continue searching through the rubble in Manchester for anyone who might be trapped. One man was taken to the hospital with severe burns, BBC reported.

"It's like a war zone - tiles that have blown off literally across the streets, there's just debris everywhere. It's mad," Alex Perkins, who lives nearby, told BBC. "It's just empty, there's nothing there, just bricks on the floor, just rubble."

Georgian Ulla, who also lives on the street, told the BBC her house "shook like it was an earthquake."

"All the lights shook - I thought someone was breaking in to begin with," she added. "First thing that I saw was all the toys on the floor. Apparently there are kids that live in the house."

The explosion was felt half a mile away, and shock waves broke windows, set off car alarms and littered the area with fragments of roof slates. At least 100 homes were evacuated, and 30 firefighters were on the scene.

Craig Needham, who runs a nearby garage, told the BBC that he and his employees ran outside when they heard the blast.

"We could just see a black plume. We thought a bomb had dropped," he said.

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