One person has died and 17 others have been injured in an explosion at a restaurant in northern Japan.
There was no sign of a fire and investigators at the site in Koriyama believe a gas leak may have caused the blast.
Those wounded in the blast have been rushed to hospitals, with officials saying two of them were seriously injured.
The area was closed off and neighbours have been evacuated.
Shocking footage from the scene showed only a skeleton left of a building, the steel structure gnawed and pieces of wall and glass scattered around.
Several employees and customers at a nearby bank were injured, local media reported.
The explosion occurred in a crowded business and commercial district close to the city's main train station.
An employee at nearby Kuwano Kyoritsu Hospital told NHK: "I heard a 'boom!' and felt the ground shaking, so I thought it was an earthquake, but the shaking didn't last very long so I realised it wasn't."
Some windows of the hospital were shattered but no-one inside was injured.
