Teenagers injured by explosion may have been sniffing gas

Police in the North are looking at the possibility that five young people were injured in a gas explosion yesterday because they were sniffing the gas.

The explosion ripped through an empty house in east Belfast leaving two teenage girls seriously ill.

The house collapsed following the explosion on Sunday afternoon.

Three girls and two boys were in the house at the time of the explosion, and police have confirmed that one of them had been handling a gas cylinder.

Bobby McConnell, of a local community drug awareness scheme, said a minority of young people who had little money and nothing to do would sniff solvents despite all the warnings.