A FARMER has suffered serious injuries after a gas cylinder exploded showering a quiet village with shrapnel.

Richard Frankland, of Hill Top Farm, Grewelthorpe, near Masham, North Yorkshire, was hurt on Saturday, October 23, around 5pm.

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

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

The blast ripped the shed’s roof off and scattered debris over houses into 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 in.

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

Police tape now bars off the accident site to the rear of the farm buildings.

A 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 flying 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, of Grewelthorpe, said: "I heard an extraordinary 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 but the family was to upset to comment yesterday at Hill Top Farm.

Mr Frankland was moved to Leeds General Infirmary and he was in a critical but stable condition last night.