One or more houses have collapsed in the centrally located Hiragishi-district.
the Incident occurred at 20.30, local time, on Sunday, according to information from the police to the news agency Kyodo News. It is unclear what caused the explosion.
the Japan Times writes in a early posted a tweet that more than 20 people were injured in the explosion. Later, it was announced that at least 41 people have been injured.
https://twitter.com/japantimes/status/1074295735481483265
According to the police one of the people affected in the explosion sustained serious damage, reports the BBC who also report that some reports are talking about a gas explosion.
people in the area for that more explosions could follow.
Images from the news agency Kyodo News shows the devastation after the explosion. These show how a building has crumbled and how the white smoke rises towards the sky, and how the blast had debris spread over a large area.
the Japan Times published a picture showing firefighters at work at a building that collapsed. An eyewitness tells the magazine that the explosion sounded like ”thunder”.