Yorkshire Street evacuated following explosion

Reporter: Jan Harwood & Kirsty Rigg
Date online: 05 December 2008

Rochdale town centre's main shopping street has been evacuated after a main electricity cable exploded. Police, fire and ambulance crews have swarmed the scene and three people, two women and a young child, received minor injuries and have been taken to hospital. Police say that their injuries are not serious.

One woman fell into a fit on the steps outside the Rochdale Exchange, and was lifted into an ambulance by paramedics

Alarm bells sounded within the Rochdale Exchange Shopping centre and staff and customers have been evacuated.

A mains electricity cable is thought to have blown out outside Marks and Spencer at around 11.15 this morning.

Mum-of-two Linda Baker said everything went in “slow motion” as she clutched her children and ran with the crowds. She said: “It was like something out of a horror film. I just heard this enormous bang and everyone started running, a boy looked like he had been really badly hurt.

“I grabbed my pram and my three-year-old and tried to get away as soon as possible.”

Eyewitness Mark Sweetmore said he had never seen anything like it. "Something serious has definitely happened," he said. "The whole of Yorkshire Street has been blocked off from Barclays Bank and there are police, fire engines and ambulances everywhere."

Many town centre shops have been without electricity all morning but now even those that had not been affected by the power cut have been evacuated following the explosion, with staff and customers being ushered to the cenotaph on the Esplanade.

Police have described the incident as an 'electrical fault', while the Council has described a 'small electrical explosion'.