An explosion in the US city of Fort Worth, Texas, on Monday (Tuesday morning AEDT) left multiple people injured and large pieces of a building littering the road in the heart of the downtown area.
At least 11 people were injured in the blast that happened at the Sandman Signature Fort Worth Downtown Hotel, according to Craig Trojacek, a spokesperson for the Fort Worth Fire Department.
The hotel is located near both city hall and the city’s convention centre.
An image from CNN affiliate WFAA shows debris in the street outside the building.
It appeared sections of the building’s façade had been ripped off in the blast.
Fort Worth Chief Communications Officer Reyne Telles told CNN, “There was an explosion in downtown” and “there was a plume of smoke seen higher than the high rises.”
There is debris scattered in the area of city hall, according to Telles.
“We are currently working a major incident. Please avoid the downtown area,” the Fort Worth Police Department said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“PIOs are on scene. We will share more details as soon as we can confirm more information.”
A witness reported seeing people coming out of the hotel with bloody faces and seeing people on gurneys following the explosion, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.
Witnesses told the paper they had family members in the hotel, and that they were injured.
Barbara Jacobs, 58, told the newspaper she normally walks past the building on her way home to an apartment building nearby but “something told her not to.”
“When I heard the boom I was in the middle of the street,” she told the paper.
“To see it firsthand, oh my God, it was scariest thing I ever seen.”
According to the hotel website, the Sandman Signature Fort Worth Downtown Hotel has 245 rooms and was built in 1920 as the Waggoner Building, named after cattle rancher and oilman William Thomas Waggoner.
The building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979.
