An explosion at a Florida shopping center injured more than 20 people, two of them seriously, and damaged several buildings Saturday morning.

The blast at a vacant pizza restaurant undergoing renovations demolished a sizeable portion of the one-story strip mall about 30 miles north of Miami, leaving only a twisted metal frame hanging over the remains of several destroyed storefronts.

Firefighters found ruptured gas lines afterward, but authorities said it was too early to determine the cause of the blast, which occurred in the small city of Plantation.

Debris ranging from large chunks of concrete and huge strips of sheet metal to pieces of foam insulation flew hundreds of yards from the building.

The detritus was strewn across the mall’s parking lot and a busy street beyond. Windows were blown out of several stores, including an adjacent LA Fitness, sending glass shards flying into patrons and employees, witnesses said.

“We thought it was thunder at first, and then we felt the building shake and things started falling. I looked outside and it was almost like the world was ending,” said Alex Carver, a worker at a deli across the street from the explosion. “It was nuts, man. It was crazy.”

The results could have been far worse. The shuttered restaurant was next door to Code Ninjas, a business where children attend classes to learn how to code. It was closed at the time of the blast, as was a pediatrician’s office, which was also destroyed.

Dr. Amanda Buscemi told Local 10 News the office was evacuated about six months ago due to a gas leak in the area.

Five fire departments responded to the scene of the blast, according to local news reports. After they searched through the rubble with dogs, the local fire chief said there were no fatalities.

The explosion was so loud, one man in a video sent to Local 10 News said it sounded like “a bomb just went off.”

Jesse Walaschek had just left the fitness club with his wife and three children, ages 4, 6 and 8. They were parked near the restaurant and had driven about 50 yards away when they heard the blast.

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“It was a massive explosion like I have never experienced,” he said.

“Everything just stopped. You didn’t see anybody,” Walaschek added. “If this had happened a minute before when we were getting the kids in the car, it would have been really bad.”

It was the third gas explosion in the US in as many days. On Friday, eight people were injured when an explosion ripped through a University of Nevada, Reno dormitory. On Tuesday, a blast that killed a woman, destroyed her home and damaged several surrounding properties in Ballantyne, North Carolina, was blamed on a gas leak.

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