Police enter the scene after a gas explosion on the second floor of a demolished building near Jinmao Tower in Pudong this morning. [Photo: Shanghai Daily]

Five people were injured in an explosion and a subsequent fire caused by a gas leak near Shanghai's iconic Jinmao Tower in the city's Pudong New Area on Thursday.

The blast occurred at about 10?AM inside a vacant two-storey building slated for demolition about 30 meters from the tower, causing an open fire, the local public security bureau said.

The five injured, who are all recovering in hospital, included a shop owner and four passersby. A glass door of the 88-storey Jinmao Tower, currently the second tallest on the Chinese mainland, shattered.

The fire was put out in half an hour.

Preliminary investigations show the accident was caused by a gas leak from a pipeline passing through the two-storey building.

People look at the aftermath of a gas explosion near Shanghai's landmark Jinmao Tower in Pudong New Area this morning. [Photo: Shanghai Daily]

Windows of a restaurant are shattered after a gas explosion on the second floor of a demolished building near Jinmao Tower in Pudong this morning. [Photo: Shanghai Daily]

(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2008)