An investigation is underway after at least 5 people were injured in a fire explosion in a Virginia shopping mall

An investigation is underway into a major explosion and fire in a shopping center in Harrisonburg, Virginia, which left at least five people injured Saturday morning.

Three people were taken to hospitals after the accident, which was reported around 8:30 a.m., and two more people at the scene were treated for minor injuries in the city. He said On saturday evening update.

The mall contained an electronic cigarette store, a musical instrument store and a recording studio, according to a newspaper Daily News Record. City spokesman Michael Parks said it was a “complete loss”. Damage to other buildings has also been reported.

Although Governor Ralph Northam chirp Matt Tobia, head of the Harrisonburg fire department, told reporters that state emergency personnel had been deployed to the area after what he described as a gas explosion.

Parkes, who said the investigation will likely take several days, said there was no indication that it was wrong.

Harrisonburg, in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, is a city of approximately 50,000 residents and is home to James Madison University.

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The university said in FB After among the injured were three students from the school’s Army Reserve Officers Training Program who were participating in a 10-mile race. The school said the building where the blast occurred was about 30 yards (27 meters) from the start and end lines of the race.

JMU said one of the students has been hospitalized but is expected to be discharged quickly. According to the circular, two other students at the scene were treated and released.

The university said that the other two injured were not from the university. The city update, which was posted on Twitter at around 5:30 pm, said they were flown to the University of Virginia Medical Center and are in serious condition and “now stable.”

Parks said it was not immediately clear whether these victims belonged to one of the centre’s companies.

Toubia said that when the crews arrived, the wounded were outside the building.

Families live nearby, she told the TV station WHSV The explosion shook their homes.

Katie Landes told the station, “It woke me up personally and I mean I immediately realized it wasn’t something normal. So, I looked out the window that was right next to me and saw there was starting some dangerous smoke going on.”

Storyful contributed to this report.