The island blown up by a gas cooker

This was the astonishing scene after a faulty gas cooker exploded in a timber-framed shack - and devastated a tiny Caribbean island.

The blast caused an inferno that leapt from hut to hut, taking less than ten minutes to sweep across half the shanty town-style community.



As gas cylinders in more wooden homes exploded, many of Soledad Miria's 1,014 inhabitants dived into the sea or took to fishing boats to escape.

More than a third - 348 - were injured but, amazingly, no one died.

By the time firefighting helicopters had put out the blaze on the 800-yard-wide island off Panama's northern coast, around 50 huts, a school and a community centre had been flattened