UK: Several Dead, Injured in Leicester Explosion

Members of the emergency services work at the site of an explosion which destroyed a convenience store and a home in Leicester, Britain, February 25, 2018. REUTERS/Darren Staples
Members of the emergency services work at the site of an explosion which destroyed a convenience store and a home in Leicester, Britain, February 25, 2018. REUTERS/Darren Staples
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UK: Several Dead, Injured in Leicester Explosion

Members of the emergency services work at the site of an explosion which destroyed a convenience store and a home in Leicester, Britain, February 25, 2018. REUTERS/Darren Staples
Members of the emergency services work at the site of an explosion which destroyed a convenience store and a home in Leicester, Britain, February 25, 2018. REUTERS/Darren Staples

At least four people were killed in an explosion and fire at a three-story building in the central English city of Leicester, British police said on Monday.

"At this stage, there are four confirmed fatalities and four people remain in hospital, one with serious injuries," Leicestershire police said in a statement about the blast on Sunday evening.

Officers said there was no indication the explosion was related to terrorism but the cause had yet to be determined.  

Firefighters worked through the night to control the blaze, which tore through the building in a residential area west of Leicester's city center, turning a shop on the ground floor and a two-story apartment above it into rubble.

Police Superintendent Shane O'Neill warned that the toll may yet rise further. 

"We believe there may be people who have not yet been accounted for and rescue efforts continue in order to locate any further casualties," he said.

Pictures and videos posted on social media showed a property engulfed in flames, with rubble and debris scattered around.

"It was very scary," local resident Graeme Hudson told AFP.

"I live five minutes away... but my house shook. I went out and saw massive smoke and big flames."

"We heard this massive explosion, the shop window six doors away vibrated and we thought it can't be a car accident, it didn't sound like a crash," another local resident, Harrish Patni, told Sky News. "We came outside and there was a big cloud of smoke, bricks all across the road."



Iran Top Diplomat Rejects Direct Negotiations with US

Iranian demonstrators walk on representations of the Israeli and US flags during the annual anti-Israeli Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day rally in support of Palestinians, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP)
Iranian demonstrators walk on representations of the Israeli and US flags during the annual anti-Israeli Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day rally in support of Palestinians, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP)
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Iran Top Diplomat Rejects Direct Negotiations with US

Iranian demonstrators walk on representations of the Israeli and US flags during the annual anti-Israeli Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day rally in support of Palestinians, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP)
Iranian demonstrators walk on representations of the Israeli and US flags during the annual anti-Israeli Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day rally in support of Palestinians, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP)

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday rejected direct negotiations with the United States as "meaningless", after US President Donald Trump said he would prefer direct talks with Tehran.

Trump had called last month on Tehran to hold negotiations on its nuclear program with Washington, but threatened to bomb Iran if diplomacy fails.

On Thursday, the US president said he would prefer to hold "direct talks" with Iran.

"I think it goes faster and you understand the other side a lot better than if you go through intermediaries," he argued.

But on Sunday, Araghchi said "direct negotiations would be meaningless with a party that constantly threatens to resort to force in violation of the UN Charter and that expresses contradictory positions from its various officials".

"We remain committed to diplomacy and are ready to try the path of indirect negotiations," he added, according to a foreign ministry statement.

"Iran keeps itself prepared for all possible or probable events, and just as it is serious in diplomacy and negotiations, it will also be decisive and serious in defending its national interests and sovereignty," Araghchi said.

On Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country was willing to engage in dialogue with the US "on equal footing".

He also questioned Washington's sincerity in calling for negotiations, saying "if you want negotiations, then what is the point of threatening?"

- Nuclear program -

Western countries, led by the United States, have for decades accused Tehran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.

Iran rejects the allegation and maintains that its nuclear activities exist solely for civilian purposes.

On Saturday Hossein Salami, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, said the country was "ready" for war.

"We are not worried about war at all. We will not be the initiators of war, but we are ready for any war," the official IRNA news agency reported him as saying.

In 2015, Iran reached a landmark deal with the permanent members of the UN Security Council, namely the United States, France, China, Russia, and the United Kingdom, as well as Germany, to regulate its nuclear activities.

The 2015 agreement formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program to guarantee that Tehran could not develop a nuclear weapon.

In 2018, during Trump's first term in office, the United States withdrew from the agreement and reinstated biting sanctions on Iran.

A year later, Iran began rolling back on its commitments under the agreement and accelerated its nuclear program.

On Monday, Ali Larijani, a close adviser to supreme leader Ali Khamenei, warned that while Iran was not seeking nuclear weapons, it would "have no choice but to do so" in the event of an attack against it.