HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE have been injured in a huge explosion at a fertiliser plant in West in Texas in the early hours of this morning.
Police have already confirmed that there are fatalities but have refused to comment on exactly how many people have died in the blast, which happened in a highly built-up area. A nursing home, an apartment complex, and nearby homes were all badly damaged by the severity of the explosion.
A Waco PD police officer said this morning that a number of firefighters who responded to the initial fire at the plant are unaccounted for. Other emergency personnel may also be missing, the spokesperson said.
He described the scene as being one of 'significant devastation'.
Police have refrained from speculating about the cause of the explosion, saying only that they are not ruling any possibilities out.
This photograph taken by a volunteer firefighter at the scene and tweeted by @Bird1304 shows the severity of the blast.
An Instagram photo shows a plume of smoke rising from the fertiliser plant after the explosion (Andy Bartee/AP)
An unidentified man is treated by nurses at the Hillcrest Baptist Medical Hospital in Waco after being injured in the explosion (AP Photo/Waco Tribune Herald/Jerry Larson)
People being treated on the local high school football field after the blast (AP Photo/WFAA-TV)
(A firefighter uses a flashlight to search a destroyed apartment complex (AP Photo/LM Otero)
An elderly person is assisted at the local school stadium after the explosion. (AP Photo/Waco Tribune Herald/Rod Aydelotte)
(Image: DFW Scanner/Facebook)
The fire burning at the fertiliser plant as seen from some distance away (AP/Michael Ainsworth/The Dallas Morning News)
Firefighters walk beside a destroyed apartment complex (AP Photo/LM Otero)
Local news anchor Ron Corning of WFAA Channel 8 tweeted this image of a high school gym set up to take people hurt in the explosion.
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