(Updated) BREAKING NEWS: Massive Series of Explosions rock Southern England

Sky News UK ^ | December 11, 2005

[Big Bad Bob]

Reports of up to Four Explosions at a fuel depot Near Hemel Hempstead, North West of London, according to Sky

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Update:

Explosion Near London


The first picture, taken by a Sky News viewer

Map of the area

Updated: 06:41, Sunday December 11, 2005

There has been a large explosion followed by two smaller blasts in the St Albans area, around 25 miles north of London.

Sky Correspondent Sky Meade has said he can see flames about 200ft in the sky and there appears to be burning fuel.

Speaking by telephone from his home, Meade described "burning tongues" of flames in the sky.

The first blast happened at 6.03am - the other explosions followed about 20 minutes later.

Meade, a seasoned war reporter said he can see what looks like "burning aviation fuel".

"This fire is extremely intense. It is a bright orange glow on the horizon," he said.

Witnesses have told Sky News they heard the blast near Junction 8 of the M1. It is thought to be centred around Bunsfield fuel depot, near Hemel Hempstead.

The blast was felt at Sky Centre - more than 20 miles away in west London.

It was so powerful it blew out the windows at a hotel in Hemel Hempstead. There are reports of injuries there.

And one witness has told how the explosion shook his mother's house and lifted the roof.

Witnesses have told Sky News that emergency services are converging on the area.

Sky News producer Anwar Tambe heard the blast from his home in Luton and is currently stuck in traffic on the M1.

He said blasts are "going off regularly" and debris has blown onto the motorway.

More follows...

[LayoutGuru2]

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d&q=explosion+hemel&btnG=Search+News

[doug from upland]

Is there an English chatroom where there might be a discussion?

[RegulatorCountry]

"What exactly do they mean by "fuel depot"?"

It's fairly large, with storage sites for multiple companies. Sounds almost like one of our "tank farms" here in the US.

[Big Bad Bob]

I'm surprised that they have switched to Sky News.

[papertyger]

:-), That last refresh has cost me at least 5 years of my life.. The Free Republic Curse :-)

Oh spare me! You know FR makez us "cool."

[onyx]

Not that I can find.
NO NEWS on this at all.

What gives?

[msnimje]

Hey, don't kid around. Those horse drawn buggy bombs made out of corn husks can be quite annoying.

[calljack]

TROP
The religion of peace

[JennysCool]

A series of large explosions have taken place near Hemel Hempstead, in Hertfordshire.

Isn't that where hurricanes hardly happen?

[scott7278]

Finally, Fox News is on it.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

FOX news alert as I type!

[Diddle E. Squat]

I don't know the area there, but bear in mind that industrial plants and fuel depots do have dramatic accidents and explosions from time to time that have nothing to do with terrorism. Its just goes with the territory. In Houston we have numerous oil and chemical refineries, and at times we have had multiple instances in a single year, none of which were terrorism. So we'll see.

[KittyKares]

The BBC web is reporting casualties.

[onyx]

FINALLY!

Fox News ALERT.

[metmom]

I haven't found anythin on MSNBC.com, FOXNews.com or London Daily Telegraph, yet. I'm going to bed since there's nothing to do about it now. My vote is TROP. And I won't believe it if they say it's not, for the record.

[Sally'sConcerns]

Is there an English chatroom where there might be a discussion?

Paging MadIvan...

[Recovering Hermit]

The Religion of Peace.

It's basically a murderous cult of fanatics who rape and kill innocent people and follow the teachings of a deranged pedophile and worship a meteor.

Oh, they also enjoy beheading anybody who doesn't agree with their "religion".

[agooga]

The Religion Of Peace--- Islam

[Cindy]

Thank you Layoutguru2.

[scott7278]

Yeah, about five seconds.