A FARMER is seriously ill in hospital after a gas cylinder exploded, showering a village with debris.

Richard Frankland, of Hill Top Farm, Grewelthorpe, near Masham, North Yorkshire, was hurt at about 5pm on Saturday.

He is thought to have been in a workshed when the cylinder exploded, blowing out part of a wall near the village centre.

Villagers said Mr Frankland was thought to have serious leg injuries and that his son was in the shed at the time, but escaped injury.

The blast ripped off the shed’s roof and scattered debris over houses in the village centre, but no one else was hurt.

Fire crews from Masham and Ripon joined the police at the scene and the Yorkshire Air Ambulance was called.

It was forced to land in a field close to the farm, and the emergency services had to demolish part of a drystone wall to get a stretcher through.

One witness, who did not want to be named, said: “It sounded like a plane going through the sound barrier.

“I was upstairs and I saw people looking. There was a wave of dust going across the field, but no one knew what had caused it.

“The emergency services arrived and then the air ambulance came and they had to land in a field.

“They took him across to the helicopter on a stretcher.

The explosion blew the top off the shed.”

David Hughes, who lives in the village, said: “I heard an extraordinarily loud bang and the windows shook.

“I didn’t know what it was, and I thought a boiler or a car had blown up and most people were out on the street trying to see what it was.

“The emergency services were here really quickly and the air ambulance arrived in just over 15 minutes.”

The injured man has a wife and two children. His family did not want to comment yesterday.

Mr Frankland was initially airlifted to Harrogate District Hospital, but was later moved to Leeds General Infirmary, where he was in a critical but stable condition last night.

The Health and Safety Executive and police are now investigating the incident.