Sharjah 24 – AFP: Seven people have been killed in an explosion at a petrol station in County Donegal in Ireland's northwest, police said on Saturday.

The Garda Siochana police force said eight people had been hospitalised as "the search and recovery for further fatalities continues" at the site in the village of Creeslough.

It said it "can now confirm seven fatalities as a result of this incident -- three fatalities were confirmed yesterday (Friday); four fatalities are now confirmed overnight."

Rescue efforts by Ireland's emergency services went on through the night after the blast ripped through a petrol station forecourt and a nearby apartment complex.

An aerial photograph taken after the explosion showed the petrol station building destroyed.

Two two-storey residential buildings behind had collapsed, while the facade of a similar adjacent building was blown off.

Many emergency services vehicles remained at the scene overnight, including fire services from both sides of the border with British-run Northern Ireland.

Gardai (Irish police) and civil defence were also involved, and a coastguard helicopter airlifted some of the injured from Letterkenny University Hospital to the Irish capital, Dublin.

Ireland's President Michael D. Higgins expressed his "shock" in an official statement.

"This tragedy is a terrible blow to a community that is closely knit and where every loss and injury will be felt by every member of the community and far beyond," he said