Queensland police were yesterday trying to unravel the facts behind a confrontation that led to an 11-year-old girl being snatched from almost certain death before an explosion that killed a 33-year-old man.
Police have not commented on reports the girl, still wearing her uniform after returning to her Sunshine Coast home after school, had been tied to a chair as a hostage.
But they confirmed they had been called to the house in Beerwah, near the Glass House Mountains in the coast's hinterland, and had spoken to a man before the blast tore the building apart.
Police said the girl was "removed" before the explosion by two officers.
Michaela Haldane, who works at the nearby Beerwah Hotel, told the Courier Mail that police had blocked the road off either side of the house before the blast and had evacuated neighbours.
"All I know was that, for the 20 minutes before it happened, the cops blocked the road off and they were grabbing people from neighbouring houses to get out," she said.
Neighbour Curtis May-Kuronya was feeding his dogs when he heard a girl screaming.
"There were two police officers that got her out of the house and sent her over to her mum," he told the Sunshine Coast Daily.
"I went into the laundry and the next thing I knew the house next door detonates in an explosion. It opened the windows and knocked my girlfriend off the bed."
Local nurse Michelle Taylor, 34, told the Daily she was in a nearby store when she heard the explosion and turned to see plumes of black smoke.
"The fire had just engulfed the house, it was pure evil and there they were, these brave firefighters just rushing in - they were amazing."
Neighbour Alice King told ABC radio the force of the explosion sent glass and debris flying for hundreds of metres.
"I heard a big explosion and the roof shook. It sounded exactly like an earthquake," she said. "Some of us thought it might have been a plane crashing. Pretty much everyone in town was running over there ..." The force of the explosion blew the roof off the house, which was reduced to rubble.
Local media said the girl lived at the house with her mother, and the man killed in the blast was the mother's former partner. Police would not comment on the reports.
Investigators were probing the scene yesterday, and police said an inquiry would be conducted by the Ethical Standards Command.
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