German firefighters and police officers injured in explosion at flats

An explosion at a residential building in western Germany has injured at least a dozen members of the emergency services, a senior security official said.

Herbert Reul, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, told regional lawmakers that 10 firefighters and two police officers were injured, some seriously, in the blast at a high-rise building in the town of Ratingen.

When they forced open an apartment door, they found a fire and one of the inhabitants used an unidentified object to cause an explosion, the minister said.

Television footage from the scene showed police snipers positioned on a balcony across the road from the building as smoke poured out of a top-floor apartment.

Police said the operation was ongoing.

Ratingen is located on the north-eastern outskirts of Dusseldorf, the state capital.