Explosion injures 12 in NYC’s Chinatown

An explosion in a building in New York’s Chinatown section injured 12 people Thursday, among them firefighters. Three people were seriously injured.

Part of the five-story building collapsed. Initial reports attributed the cause of the blast to a gas leak, but assistant fire chief Robert Boyce said it’s unclear what caused the explosion on the first floor.

He said there was a minimal collapse inside the building.

Building resident Tszkan Cheung said he heard a “boom, like a bombing, like an earthquake.”

Associated Press also contributed to this article.