A nine-year-old girl was crushed to death today when a gas explosion caused the front wall of a house to collapse on top of her as she walked past on her way to breakfast club at her school in Devon.

Paramedics battled to save the life of the young girl after the blast at 8am in Bulteel Gardens in the Southway area of Plymouth, but she died shortly after arrival at the city's Derriford Hospital.

Four other people were injured in the blast, including the girl's mother who was said by police to be "extremely shocked". An elderly couple who lived in the end-of-terrace house were treated for minor injuries and smoke inhalation but were not seriously hurt.

The girl was named locally as Stephanie Hammacott, a pupil at Southway Primary.

Eyewitnesses spoke of flames leaping into the air and smoke billowing across the area from the house.

Police said that there had been reports of a smell of gas in the area before the explosion and the gas leak had continue to burn for several hours afterwards. More than a dozen families were evacuated from nearby houses and other residents were asked to close their windows.

The local gas company, Transco, was this afternoon trying to pin down the origin of the leak.

More than a dozen families in nearby houses were evacuated and other residents were asked to close their windows as a precaution.

The Plymouth Herald quoted an eyewitness, Dan Kershaw, who lives opposite the house, who said that he saw passers-by desperately trying to free the girl from beneath a collapsed wall.

"I don't know what time it was but I woke up and heard a woman screaming," Mr Kershaw said. "There was a girl trapped under the rubble of the wall. The woman must have been the mother. She was hysterical.

"Loads of people came to dig out the girl from the rubble. I could not look any more because she was in such a bad way."

Tristan Nichols, a Herald reporter on the scene, told the newspaper: "The whole of the front of the house has been blown out and firefighters are currently concentrating on the upper half of the structure.

"Police have sealed off an area 30 metres around the property and residents who haven't been evacuated have been ordered to stay inside with their windows closed.

"Thick black smoke is pouring from the building, there is still burning wreckage in front of the property. There are nine police cars, four riot vans and dozens of firefighters."

South Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust said that ambulance crews treated an elderly couple, thought to live at the house, for minor injuries and smoke inhalation.

A woman who was with the child when the wall collapsed was also taken to hospital with shock and minor injuries.

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