The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Madrid

A suspected gas explosion injured 25 people, 17 of them seriously in a block of flats at Gava, near Barcelona, in northeast Spain, a regional government spokeswoman told AFP.

"An accumulation of gas" in the lower part of the three-storey block could have set off the explosion, the spokeswoman for the interior ministry of the Catalan government said.

The blast happened around 3.00 am (0200 GMT). At least four children were among the injured.

Firemen were combing the wreckage in the search for any more victims in the building which had been partially destroyed and whose walls were instable, she added.

Around 50 people living in neighbouring blocks of flats had been evacuated as a precaution, she added.