Four family members were injured in a natural gas explosion and subsequent fire at their apartment in northeast China's Jilin Province Friday morning, local authorities and witnesses said.

Four injured in northeast China home explosion

The accident happened at 7:45 a.m. in their fifth floor apartment in Longtan District of Jilin City, the second largest city in Jilin after the provincial capital of Changchun.

The fire was put out at 8:30 a.m., a spokesman with the local fire brigade said.

The four injured were hospitalized but were in stable condition, he said without giving details.

The explosion shook six apartment buildings in the neighborhood and broke the window panes of more than 300 homes. Several hundred residents were evacuated after the blast.

Many residents in the neighborhood said it felt like an earthquake. "There was a loud bang and then all our windows were broken," said a close neighbor who declined to be named.

The cause of the explosion was not immediately known.

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