Firefighters using search and rescue dogs are continuing to search the collapsed property amid fears there are people who remain unaccounted for.
A Leicestershire fire and rescue spokesman said emergency services were searching for gaps in the building in which people could have survived. The search was expected to continue till today.
Krishna Rungen, 69, yesterday said his brother-in-law lived with his wife and three sons in the flat of the building which was destroyed. He said his brother-in-law, who was at work at the time of the explosion, is at the hospital with his youngest son age 15, who he said was pulled out of the wreckage and is not seriously injured. But Rungen wept as he said that he had unable to get news about the rest of the family.
“He (my brother-in-law) doesn’t know what’s happened to his other children,” he said. “His two older sons are missing, his wife is missing and one of his son’s girlfriends is believed to be missing. We’ve been waiting (for news) since 7pm Sunday night.”
Rungen said he was devastated by the thought that members of his extended family could be among the five already confirmed dead but that he had not received any information as to whether this was the case.
He said he had spoken to the youngest son. “He is dazed,” he said. “He said he was at home surrounded by his family; the next thing he knew bricks were falling on him and it was pitch dark.”
The flat was above a Polish shop, according to residents, although they said the business had changed hands several times in recent years.
Many residents living off Hinckley Road, in the west of the city, where the explosion occurred, rushed to help those caught in the blast.
Tony Hartley, who lives around 50 yards away from the blast site, told the Press Association: “I was standing in the kitchen and heard a bang so I ran up the road and could see glass everywhere.
“Me and a friend lifted up a steel girder with about five other blokes and removed a bloke from underneath it.
“We then turned round, saw rubble and heard a little boy crying. There was me and another bloke sifting through the rubble and we managed to pull the boy out.
“I said to him, ‘Is there anybody else in there?’ and he said, ‘My friend’s a metre back inside the building’ and that’s when the emergency services turned up.”
Hartley, 33, said the boy, thought to be aged between 10 and 13, was able to walk after being freed.
Hannah Brockley, 9, who was with her mother Nikki as her school was closed for the day, said her father was among those who ran to help those trapped.
“Dad was lifting up bricks to help a person and he managed to get him out. He couldn’t get anyone else out and the fire brigade arrived and told him to move away.”
The cause of the fire remains unknown. Sunan Logue, 31, said she used to work in the shop when it was a Londis and at that time it did not have a boiler so she doubted whether there could have been a gas explosion there.
Logue, who lives round the corner, said: “We heard a big bang like something had dropped on the roof. I thought it was an earthquake. I opened the door and all I could see was the flames. We went outside and saw the big fire. The police told us we had to get out of the house.” Like many families she, her husband and two children were evacuated overnight.
Many residents also suffered power cuts as a result of the blast although electricity had been restored by yesterday morning.
Richard Rice, 73, said: “It was a massive bang; it made me jump. I thought it was TJ’s (the takeaway next door to where the explosion took place) because they have the open flame. I went into my back yard. I could see two people lying in the road, obviously being treated. I think it was members of the public treating them. It looked as though the whole building was in the road. Flames were just licking at it.”