At least two people were killed and two others suffered critical burns Tuesday in an explosion at a shopping mall in Perth, Western Australia, police and local media said. The cause of the blast was not immediately clear but police believe the victims were working on an electrical transformer at the Galleria Shopping Centre in the Morley district.
Eyewitness, Jonathan McDonagh, said he saw three people running out of the center engulfed in flames. "I didn't hear the bang, I just seen the smoke and three fellows came running out and they were on fire, completely head to toe on fire," he told The Associated Press. Police confirmed one person had died, but Channel 7 News later reported that a second person died from their injures.
The wounded, including a person with burns to 80 per cent of their body, were taken to Royal Perth Hospital, paramedics told the Eastern Reporter newspaper. "We believe that they possibly were workers who were working within that transformer area of the shopping center," Inspector Rob Harrison of Western Australia Police told the AP.
