Beijing: Multiple gas explosions in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung have killed at least 22 people and injured 270 others, according to local fire authorities.

In one of Taiwan’s worst accidents of this kind, at least four firefighters were among the dead and 22 others injured, including first responders who were trying to contain a gas leak in the city’s Cianjhen district, which ignited what is believed to be the first of numerous explosions late on Thursday night.

The force of the blasts overturned cars and left wide craters in the streets in the city of 2.7 million people.

One witness said at first he thought some "poisonous gas" had leaked from the old railway and a construction site of Kaohsiung's light rapid transit system.