At least half a dozen people have been evacuated from a burning building and nearby homes after a suspected ram raid on the New South Wales north coast.
Emergency services were called to a shop on River Street in Ballina at about 3:30am.
Olivia Kuhl, who lives nearby, told the ABC she heard the impact.
“I woke up to the biggest crash I’ve ever heard,” she said.
“A Mercedes [had] ram raided the tobacconist next door, and then 35 minutes later it was completely up in flames.
“My car was a pile of ash, Dad’s ute and my aunty has lost everything she owned, I’m still a bit shaken actually.”
Ms Kuhl said the explosion happened when when the Mercedes was hit from behind by a BMW and pushed it further inside the building.
As the flames spread, bystanders could be heard yelling “oh my god, get out of the house, it’s going to explode”.
Superintendent Adam Dewberry, from Fire and Rescue NSW, said firefighters arriving at the scene were confronted with “heavy fire activity”.
“We’ve had to evacuate six to eight people from residences above the shop fire or the adjoining properties,” he said.
“At this stage we’ve got no injuries reported.”
Police have established a crime scene and are investigating the incident.
It comes amid growing fears about turf wars involving tobacco retailers, with a spate of incidents reported in Victoria and on the NSW Central Coast.
The federal member for Page, Kevin Hogan, was quick to raise the prospect of the incident being part of a larger tobacco turf war.
“We don’t know the people involved, but to draw the bow and say this may be organised crime, I think is a possibility,” he said.
“Do I know that exactly happened? No. Is it a possibility? Absolutely.”
