Two women were seriously ill today after a gas explosion in a flat in Newry.
The women, one 37 and the other 30, were rescued from their home by the fire service after suffering serious injuries in the blast and blaze which followed.
One was being treated in Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital for critical injuries and the other in the Ulster Hospital at Dundonald for serious injuries.
The Police Service said they were treating the explosion as an accident, and added that it did not involve mains gas. The alarm was raised after the explosion blew windows out of the flat at Loanda Crescent in the city late last night.
A spokesman for the Fire and Rescue Service said: "Crews entered the building and assisted one female from the flat and re-entered and removed a woman from the bedroom.
"There was a fire in the living room at the time they carried out the rescue, which they subsequently realised was caused by some form of gas explosion in the building.
"There was quite a bit of structural damage, windows blown out and other internal damage."