Six people injured in truck explosion near Charelville

SIX people have been injured after a truck explosion in western Queensland.

SIX people were injured after a truck explosion 30km south of Charleville overnight.

The truck, believed to be carrying ammonium nitrate, was traveling along the Mitchell Highway at Wyandra around 9.50pm when it crashed and caught fire.

The combination of the chemical and diesel petrol caused a large explosion.
It is understood another vehicle was damaged in the explosion.

A nearby bridge suffered extensive damage and the highway is expected to be closed for sometime.
Six patients were taken to the Charleville hospital in varying conditions.

Geoscience Australia initially detected a 2.0 magnitude earthquake due to the reach of the explosion.

Locals have taken to online platforms to contact friends and family and offer support.

"Please may there be no casualties....thoughts are with the truck driver," one local wrote.

Rae Griffin also extended support to the victims of the accident.

"My heart goes out to everyone that has been affected by this horrible accident in a small town," she said.
Patients suffered multiple fractures, lacerations, head and chest injuries and deep burns from the explosion.

The town of Charleville has only three ambulance officers but a spokesperson from the Queensland Ambulance Service said they were assisted by other emergency service workers.

"Everybody works together in these serious situations, we had three officers from Charleville on scene as well as fire crews and police," the spokesperson said.

A spokesperson from Geo Science Australia confirmed that an earthquake occurred in the same area of the truck explosion just minutes before.

"An earthquake recorded earlier this evening at 10.12pm local time, 50km south of Charleville," the spokesperson said.

The quake recorded a magnitude 2.0 which was unlikely to cause "any type of damage".

"We had about half a dozen reports of people contacting us via phone, email or the web to let us know that they had felt the quake."