‘Devastating’ blast destroys Irish service station; 3 dead

Three people were killed in an explosion at a service station in County Donegal on Friday, Irish police said, as rescuers kept working overnight to find survivors.
Sinn Fein lawmaker Pearse Doherty said on the scene it was “a devastating explosion” in “a very busy location.” Police did not address the cause of the explosion in a statement released late on Friday, and they said they were not yet in a position to provide further information on casualties.
The injured were ferried to Letterkenny University Hospital, which said it had triggered a major emergency protocol and was dealing with a number of injured people following the incident.
The explosion happened shortly after 3 p.m. local time at an Applegreen service station on the outskirts of the village of Creeslough, which is around 25 kilometres (16 miles) from the town of Letterkenny.
The Irish Coast Guard said its nearby helicopter assisted the emergency services and a specialist rescue team was sent to the scene from nearby Northern Ireland.