At least 20 injured huge bakery explosion in center of Paris

A massive explosion at a bakery in central Paris has left at least 20 people injured - including two fighting for their lives - and caused scenes of devastation, BFM TV reported.

The blast made a quiet street look like a war zone - gutting a building and igniting a blaze, flipping cars and filling rue de Trevise with debris.

Rescuers searched the building and debris for victims, and rescued shaken residents from flats above the bakery as the injured were rushed to hospital.

Twenty people were injured - two of them critically - in the suspected gas explosion in Paris' ninth arrondissement just before 9am local time, according to reports.

Initially, there were fears that the blast was a car bomb or a terrorist attack.

However, police have said that firefighters were investigating a report of a gas leak when the explosion happened.