At least 25 people were killed and 267 were injured in a series of gas explosions Friday in the southern Taiwan town of Kaohsiung. 

The blasts sparked massive fires, overturned cars and tore up roads, causing residents to flee, according to AFP. 

The resulting fire raged through the city's Cianjhen district, leaving a long rift in the middle of a major roadway. 

Video footage captured by dashboard cameras inside cars at the scene showed a number of blasts and flames erupting from manholes, with drivers swerving to avoid getting engulfed by flames. 

Four firefighters were killed in the blasts after rushing to the scene shortly after receiving calls from residents about a strong gas smell. Rescuers are still searching for two other missing firefighters. 

Premier Jiang Yi-huan inspected the areas and announced that flags will be flown at half-mast Aug. 5 to commemorate the victims at schools and government offices, and will stay at half-mast for three days. The half-mast flags will also remember the victims of last week's fatal plane crash. 

The Xinhua news agency said that Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed his condolences to the victims of the explosions.

The blast is believed to have been triggered by a gas leakage from underground pipelines, which was so powerful that it split roads open. A gulf appeared in one street that was so large that it swallowed a number of fire engines and other vehicles, and blew off the roofs of houses. 

Witnesses of the event said they saw bodies thrown across parts of the city, which is near a large petrochemical complex.

"I saw fire soaring up to possibly 20 storeys high after a blast and fire engines and cars being blown away while around 10 bodies lay on the street," witness Johnson Liu told AFP.

Footage from one of the dashboard cameras showed a car making a u-turn after the first explosion, only to face another explosion emerging from underneath the road. 

Residents carried people injured in the blasts on makeshift stretchers while ambulances rushed to the areas. Firefighters could also be seen removing dead bodies from among the debris. 

One witness said that it sounded like "thunder" and felt "like an earthquake."

The National Fire Agency said they received calls of gas leaks late Thursday, then there was a series of blasts around midnight. 

As of Friday, the blazes had been extinguished or burned out. City officials said they cordoned off four miles of the road as workers and rescuers cleaned up the scene.  

The local government evacuated more than 1,100 residents of the town from the area to schools and shelters as they tried to locate the source of the gas leak. 

The military dispatched around 1,400 soldiers to help with the disaster recovery effort. 

Kaohsiung also suffered a major gas disaster in 1997, when an explosion killed five people and injured 20. The blast occurred when a team from the Chinese Petroleum Corp. was trying to uncover a gas pipeline for a road construction project. 

The explosion was the second fatal disaster for Taiwan in a little more than a week, as a TransAsia Airways plane crashed last Wednesday, killing 48 people.