One dead, three missing, in Didcot power station building collapse

Update 7.35pm: One person is dead, three are missing and five are in hospital following a building collapse at Didcot Power Station.

Emergency services declared a "major incident" after being called to the scene in south Oxfordshire at 4pm.

The collapse happened at the former coal-fired Didcot A plant, which closed in 2013 and was in the process of being demolished.

Area manager Mat Carlile, from Thames Valley Fire Control Service, said: "I can confirm search operations are in progress and that there has been one fatality, five persons have been taken to hospital and three persons are currently missing."

The fire service advised people to stay indoors, saying that while dust from the collapse had covered "a considerable area" there were no hazardous materials in the building.

Fire engines from Oxfordshire were at the scene, along with specialist search units and further teams from Thames Valley Police and South Central Ambulance Service, including six ambulances and two air ambulance helicopters.

Pictures from the scene showed a significant chunk of a building in the defunct Didcot A site has collapsed, with a large amount of debris on the ground.

A GMB union official told the Press Association: "We understand that workers were preparing two boilers for demolition in the coming weeks. This led to the collapse of a building."

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said "casualties" were being taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and asked the public to stay away unless suffering "serious or life-threatening emergencies".

A "major incident" has been declared and casualties reported after reports of an explosion at Didcot Power Station in England.

Thames Valley Police said it was called at 4pm to the site in south Oxfordshire alongside other emergency services.

Six ambulances and two air ambulance have been sent to the scene, South Central Ambulance Service said.

A spokesman said: "We are describing it as a major incident" adding that he thought there would be casualties.

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Photographs from the scene showed part of a building missing, which appears to be the former coal-fired Didcot A, which closed in 2013.

Major incident declared with several casualties after an explosion at Didcot power station https://t.co/aikKMNTC1Z https://t.co/1wE7kMF1rs

— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) February 23, 2016

Rodney Rose, deputy leader of Oxfordshire County Council, told the Oxford Mail: "I have been told there has been one fatality, but the rest is currently unknown.

"The fire service is there now and we are still trying to find out if this was a demolition."

Mr Rose, who sits on a committee responsible for Thames Valley Fire Service, added: "At the moment this is being treated as a collapsed building, not an explosion, but there was a bang."

Pictures from the scene showed a significant chunk of a building in the defunct Didcot A site has collapsed, with a large amount of debris on the ground.

There is also a heavy emergency services presence.

The fire that struck Didcot in October 2014.

It comes 16 months since a major fire struck a cooling tower at Didcot B in October 2014.

Eyewitness Bill McKinnon, who lives in Didcot near the scene of the explosion, told the BBC: "I was sitting in my front room, I can see the power station quite clearly from where I am, it's only about 400 yards away.

"About 4 o'clock, when I heard the explosion and the very loud rumbling, by the time I had got up and looked out of the window there was a huge cloud of dust which came through and over our village.

"When that had cleared I noticed that half of the old power station, where they used to keep the generators, half of that was missing.

"There wasn't any physical feeling, it was only noise. When they took down the cooling towers a couple of years ago it was about the same volume as that. It was quite loud."

He added: "I was a little bit surprised because normally the contractors let us know when they are going to do explosions, so I was a bit surprised because we hadn't heard anything.

"Very shortly afterwards the air ambulance turned up and then fire engines and ambulances started arriving, and a little while after that another air ambulance turned up, and I think they are still there."

Mr McKinnon said the explosion took place in a large building which housed the generators for producing power.