A powerful explosion ripped through an office building in Prague, the Czech capital, at 9.56 am local time.

Initial reports quote Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda as saying it’s a gas explosion and not a terrorist attack.

About 40 people have been reportedly injured and some people could be trapped under the rubble.

The building is on a side street near the historic National Theater.

Prague’s Charles University and the Film and TV School of the Academy of Sciences of Performing Arts are also located next to the damaged building.

Prime Minister Petr Necas said in a statement he was “deeply hit by the tragedy of the gas explosion.”