Bristol explosion today latest: Two killed in ‘suspicious’ blast as major incident declared – UK Times

The College of Policing defines a major incident as “an event or situation with a range of serious consequences which requires special arrangements to be implemented by one or more emergency responder agencies”.

Avon and Somerset Police have asked the public to avoid the area of the explosion at this time.

Bradley Shepherd, who lives on Bradeston Grove, said he “jumped out of bed” when he heard a “large explosion noise” at the time of the explosion.

Police and armed police were arriving to the property “within minutes”, he told the BBC.

He added that the entire neighbourhood were told to evacuate their properties within 15-20 minutes and ushered to the local Harvester.

One resident, who asked not to be named, told BristolLive he heard a loud “bang” at about 6.30am and went outside to see what was happening.

He said armed police shouted for him to “get inside, get inside!”

He and his partner were shortly told to evacuate their home and move to the Harvester pub until further notice.

Officers are also carrying out enquiries at a property in Speedwell which police say is linked to the Sterncourt Road explosion.

A cordon has been put in place as a precaution to help keep the public safe, Avon and Somerset Police have said.

“People living within that cordon are being evacuated to a temporary rest centre”, they said, adding: “There is not believed to be any significant damage to other properties.”

A representative of the police said: “Given the recent change to the UK threat level, we would like to reassure the public from the outset we are not treating this as a suspected terrorist incident.

“We ask people not to speculate around the circumstances and continue to encourage the public to avoid the area while emergency services respond to this incident.”

An explosion was reported at a residential address in Sterncourt Road at about 6.30am today.

The cause of the incident is being treated as suspicious, and a major incident has been declared.

Two adults have died at the address and their families have been updated.

A cordon remains in place while emergency services respond to the incident.