Gas explosion kills mother and 2 young daughters in Poland

Officials in southern Poland say that a woman and her two children have been killed in a gas explosion in an apartment in the city of Bytom.

Four other people have been hospitalised.

A spokeswoman for local firefighters, Aneta Golebiowska, said the explosion occurred shortly after 1 pm local time in a ground-floor apartment in downtown Bytom.

She said that three people died and four people suffered burns and injuries, including a passer-by in the street.

Another 17 people have been evacuated from the building where the explosion broke windows and cracked a ceiling.

Seventeen teams of firefighters worked to put out the fire caused by the explosion.

New portal Onet.pl said the fatalities were a 39-year-old woman and her daughters, aged 5 and 7.