BREAKING: Shopping centre taped off and emergency services on scene after reports of 'explosion' - updates

A shopping centre near Manchester city centre has been taped off this afternoon following reports of an explosion.

White City Retail Park on Chester Road in Old Trafford has been partially sealed off, and emergency services are currently believed to be at the scene following the incident.

It is understood that Chester Road heading southbound out of the city centre is currently closed. Greater Manchester Fire Service, GMP, and NWAS have all been contacted for further information. Cadent Gas have confirmed they have engineers on the scene but do not believe the incident to be related to the gas network.

The exact nature of the incident, or seriousness has not yet been confirmed. Pictures seen by the Manchester Evening News show several fire crews on scene as well as officers from Greater Manchester Police. A number of popular retail outlets are situated inside the shopping park including Aldi, Currys, M&S, Nando's, The Gym and Furniture Village.

A spokesperson for Cadent Gas told the M.E.N: "We have arrived on scene and are checking our assets but there is no suggestion that this is connected to the gas network."

We will be bringing you all the latest updates below.

Chester Road Explosion https://t.co/qDrNl9jD9b pic.twitter.com/0HlyAVh4xv

A spokesperson for Electricity North West said:

We received reports of a power cut at 1:41pm affecting 25 properties on Chester Road due to a fault with an underground electricity cable.

We responded immediately and using our automatic restoration systems power was restored to all properties within the hour at 2:28pm and now, teams of engineers are on site carrying out repair work to the damaged cable."

Routes 255/256. Diversion heading towards #Partington and #Flixton only via