UK: One feared dead in Oxford power plant collapse

LONDON

One person is feared dead and others are reported wounded after a power station building collapsed Tuesday near the English city of Oxford, reported local media.

The building, thought to be located in a disused part of the Didcot power station complex, collapsed on Tuesday afternoon after residents reported hearing a loud explosion.

Rodney Rose, a local municipality leader, told the local Oxford Mail newspaper: “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. [...] At the moment this is being treated as a collapsed building, not an explosion, but there was a bang.”

Footage filmed from a helicopter and broadcast on BBC television showed what appeared to be part of a building collapsed into a tangled mass of concrete and wiring.

Police are expecting casualties and have declared a major incident, with ambulances and fire crews sent to the site.

Didcot houses an active natural gas power station, although one part of the complex that previously burned oil and coal is in the process of being demolished.