Up to 20 people have been injured, three of them seriously, after an explosion in an apartment building in the Swedish city of Gothenburg.

Hundreds of people were evacuated after the blast, which took place at 5am (4am BST) in the Annedal district of Sweden’s second largest city, the TT news agency said.

Rescue services are still working to extinguish fires that spread to several apartments as a result of the blast.

Jon Pile, operations manager at the greater Gothenburg rescue service, said: “It was burning in several places in the property and in several apartments, after the explosion.”

The cause of the explosion is still unknown but police have initiated a preliminary investigation and will access the building once the fires are under control, according to TT.