Three people were injured last night when a blast devastated a newly refurbished hotel. The explosion at the Drumtochty Arms hotel in Auchenblae, Aberdeenshire, came just weeks after it opened following several months of work.

Three people were injured last night when a blast devastated a newly refurbished hotel.

The explosion at the Drumtochty Arms hotel in Auchenblae, Aberdeenshire, came just weeks after it opened following several months of work.

The injured were thought to be a female member of staff, a male customer and a contractor who was fitting liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) equipment before the scheduled opening of the kitchens this week. Their injuries were not thought to be life threatening.

The hotel is owned by the millionaire Laird of Drumtochty Castle, Charlie Anderson, who made a fortune through oil services firm Andergauge.

He now lives in Canada but had bought the hotel, which closed last January, to improve and create a centre for community life in the village.

Mr Anderson is currently in Canada but his sister Lesley Paul, who visited the scene last night, said: "He will be devastated. The hotel was looking absolutely beautiful although only the bar had been opened so far. He was not opening rooms until the kitchen was completed and that was due to happen next week.

"Charlie is due back from Canada on Friday and was planning to stay in the hotel but he won't be staying there now. It is a tragedy."

A large area of the village was cordoned off after the explosion, although no evacuations were required.

Andy Coueslant, area manager for Grampian Fire and Rescue Service, said he believed everyone who had been in the hotel when the explosion occurred, at around 5.30pm, had been accounted for but the operation was being treated as a search-and-rescue one until they could be sure no-one was trapped.

Inspector Jim Gordon, of Grampian Police, said all three casualties had been able to escape from the scene themselves. The village of Auchenblae is not served by mains gas and Inspector Gordon confirmed that LPG was being investigated as a possible cause of the incident.

One local resident said: "This is absolutely terrible. There is nowhere at all for anyone to go in Auchenblae which is why Mr Anderson did up the hotel. It was looking fantastic and although it wasn't all finished he opened it up before Christmas so people had somewhere to go."

Local resident Ewan Smith said he had returned home to find his wife and children in the street looking shocked. He said they had described the explosion as "like a bomb going off". He said that houses within a half-mile radius had been shaken by the blast.

One local resident, who did not want to be named, said: "I was sitting in my house, and I heard a massive bang and the whole house shook.

"I went outside later and it was like a circus, with an ambulance, police and fire engine"

The manager of the hotel is Highland heavyweight athlete Bruce Aitken.