Mystery surrounds an explosion which blew away part of an Oxford home, shook neighbours' homes and showered the road with glass.

The landlord escaped because he was at work when the blast on the ground floor demolished the bay window of his bedroom and caused internal walls to buckle at 11.30pm on July 3.

Two tenants of the property in Wentworth Road, Summertown, who were upstairs at the time, were unhurt.

The cause of the explosion is being investigated, but Oxfordshire Fire Service do not think it was caused by gas escaping.

Firefighters said the occupants were spared the full force of the blast because they had opened patio doors to the rear, which vented the explosion.

Assistant Divisional Officer Tony Prosser said: "If it hadn't been a warm night, and they hadn't opened the back patio doors, I think we would have been pulling out bodies, though not necessarily dead ones.

"It's blown out all the windows in the room and taken the back door off its hinges.

"It has practically demolished the front bay window.

"It virtually knocked all the internal walls down. The walls are bulging out about a foot in the middle."

Neighbour Jeanette Collis, 41, said: "They were very lucky. I had just gone to bed and I heard this huge bang.

"It was so loud I thought it was in my house.

"I felt my house shake. Glass had just flown across the road.

"My first thought was someone had crashed a car and it had exploded."

Crews helped an elderly neighbour. Police, paramedics, firefighters and the Red Cross victim support unit from Abingdon attended.