Deadly explosions rock Freetown

The fire service said they believed the blasts, which occurred in a shop off Free Street in the city centre, might have been caused by a gas leak.

The main hospital said it was struggling to cope with the wounded.

Many people are trapped inside the building, which has been badly damaged.

A BBC correspondent at the scene says human body parts litter the road outside.

Doctors struggling

Senior security sources told the BBC that the incident began when a fire broke out in a clothes shop in a narrow road running off the main street through central Freetown.

The fire brigade were attempting to extinguish the fire in the shop, which was located on the ground floor of a four-storey residential building, when there was a series of explosions, the sources said.

The deputy chief of the fire brigade, Ahmad Kamara-Bongay, said the explosions were probably caused by a gas leak which was ignited by the fire in the shop.

The blasts seriously damaged the fire engine which had been parked outside the building and killed at least 17 people, Mr Kamara-Bongay said. It is not yet known if any fire officers are among the dead.

The area was full of people buying clothes for the holiday season and many people are believed to be trapped beneath the remains of the badly damaged building.

The BBC's Mark Doyle says the shop is believed to have been owned, as are many retail outlets in Sierra Leone, by a member of the large resident Lebanese community.

Doctors at the main Connaught hospital are struggling to cope with the large number of casualties and previously closed wards have had to be opened.