Fears blast hotel could collapse

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Two men and a woman were taken to hospital after the explosion

Firefighters searching the debris of an Aberdeenshire hotel devastated by an explosion have been forced to pull out amid fears the building could collapse.

Three people injured in the blast at the Drumtochty Arms in Auchenblae are said to be "stable" in hospital.

It is not thought there is anyone else buried in the rubble, but a search and rescue operation has been taking place to make sure.

That has now had to be put on hold for a structural examination.

Firefighters spent the night searching through rubble as part of the investigation into what happened.

He was all covered in blood and completely delirious going 'it's my fault, I forgot to turn the gas off' Gary Downs Local resident

A woman and two men - one in his 20s and the other in his 50s - were injured and are being treated in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

It is thought that two of the injured were members of staff and the other was a customer.

People living nearby talked about hearing a "great big boom" on Wednesday night, and most of the village's main street had to be cordoned off.

The pub had recently been refurbished into a hotel.

It is thought the explosion could have been related to a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder.

There did not appear to be any suspicious circumstances.

'House shook'

One local resident came across a man who said he may have caused the explosion.

Gary Downs told BBC Scotland: "He was all covered in blood and completely delirious going 'it's my fault, I forgot to turn the gas off and I need to phone my boss and tell him what's happening'.

"But his hands were all covered in blood and I took his phone off him saying 'look, you're in a state of shock, just concentrate on getting yourself out of here, we'll worry about your boss after'."

Mr Downs said it was fortunate the blast hit in the early afternoon on a Wednesday because any later and he believes there could have been greater casualties and perhaps fatalities.

Another resident said: "I was sitting in my house, and I heard a massive bang and the whole house shook."

Blast probe

Andy Coueslant, of Grampian Fire and Rescue Service, said there had been a "significant explosion" at the rear of the property.

He said: "We believe that everyone has been accounted for, but until we are quite sure about that we will treat it as a search and rescue operation."

A director of the company which owns the hotel told BBC Scotland he was hugely relieved there had been no loss of life.

He said renovation work had been under way for more than a year and that work had been continuing on Wednesday.

However, he declined to speculate on the cause of the explosion. He said he was co-operating with the emergency services and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).