article_snippet: The horrific gas explosion in East Village on Thursday brought Manhattan to a standstill and left a lingering fear about the city-wide, never-ending building works.
article_snippet: This is the moment emergency services rushed to a gas explosion which blew three East Village buildings into oblivion on Thursday .
article_snippet: The entire block has been shut off by authorities since Thursday as teams worked around the clock to wade through the rubble .
article_snippet: Eventually, the fire service blocked off the route and officers flooded the area to search for trapped victims .
article_snippet: In the first few minutes, people were shouting 'bomb' and NYPD detectives were scrambling to handle the situation .
article_snippet: The smoke and fire continued to pour into the sky until the early hours of Friday morning .
article_snippet: In those first moments, people were saying "bomb" rather than "gas explosion" but either way, I had a sense of what images I was looking for.
article_snippet: The explosion occurred 15 minutes later as workers went to look in the basement.
highlights_snippet: Nathan Blaney rushed out to see smoke pouring from the building as the building slowly collapsed .
  