'Catastrophic' explosion at US nursing home

Two people have died and others are missing after an explosion at a nursing home in the US.

Black smoke was seen rising from the nursing Home in Bristol Township, outside Philadelphia, just after 2pm local time on Tuesday after a suspected gas leak.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro confirmed two people had died and "some number of individuals" remain missing.

A rescue operation is under way to try to locate those trapped in the building.

Images of the scene showed parts of the front of the building had completely collapsed and most of the windows were shattered.

"It is a sad and tragic evening here in Bucks County," Mr Shapiro said during a news conference.

"An explosion occurred just a few hours ago... we believe preliminarily that it was a gas leak, the explosion was really quite catastrophic."

Bristol Township fire chief Kevin Dippolito said parts of the first floor of the building had collapsed into the basement of the building.

He said many people were pulled out of the building by emergency services, but "specialised equipment" has been brought in to search the debris for missing people.

"We are still in rescue mode," he said, adding: "We have not transitioned into recovery mode."

A local disaster emergency was declared by Bristol Township manager, Randee J Mazur, who said the explosion had caused "significant structural collapse" and there was risk of further collapse.

He said the declaration would remain in place for seven days.

An investigation to confirm the cause of the explosion is ongoing, but it occurred at the same time crews from the local gas company, PECO, said it had responded to reports of a gas odour.

'Loud kaboom'

Willie Tye, who lives close to the home, said he was watching TV when he heard a "loud kaboom".

He said he went to look and saw "fire everywhere" and people escaping the building.

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The 174-bed nursing home, about 20 miles northeast of Philadelphia, is called Bristol Health & Rehab Centre but had been known until recently as Silver Lake Healthcare Centre.

The home's owner, Saber Healthcare Group, said it was working with local emergency services.

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