Police seal off the Welsh Bridge

Shops in the Mardol area of the town suffered damage with smashed windows at places including the Relate Charity Shop and Topcats bar.

Richard Kennedy, manager of Topcats, was opening to clean up when the blast happened.

He said: “Next thing I knew I was on the floor. It just threw me forward. I looked up and the window had shattered. I thought Id been shot.

“I heard screaming and shouting and ran to the corner. I made sure the emergency services had been called, but a lot of people had already done that.”

Catherine Roche, 28, of Frankwell, was at home with her boyfriend Simon Hogg when they heard an explosion and the house shook.

She said: “I was in my bedroom and the entire house shook, the windows were shaking and the loft hatch fell down. It felt as if something had hit the house. My boyfriend went outside and saw smoke billowing from around the Welsh Bridge. The emergency services seemed to be arriving within seconds. It was really quite scary.”

Steve Cocliff, of Coton Hill, Shrewsbury, described the scene in Bridge Street as “absolute chaos” following the explosion.

He said: “There were quite a few people injured, a couple were children. It was chaos, absolute chaos.

“We were stuck in traffic trying to go through the town and I had my camera with me so I went and took some pictures. There was debris all the way across the Welsh Bridge.”

Ollie Parry, from the Salopian Bar, said his parents had felt the impact of the explosion as far away as the Shelton water tower.

Homes in Frankwell and The Mount also shook.