Moment pleasure boat explodes in fireball at Costa Blanca holiday resort injuring Brit, 37, and two others

This is the horror moment a boat exploded in a fireball in a Spanish holiday resort, injuring three people including a British man.

The 37-year-old was rushed to Torrevieja Hospital yesterday along with a 31-year-old Lithuanian woman who suffering facial burns, while the third person, a Spanish man aged 34, was airlifted to a hospital in Valencia after suffering severe burn injuries.

Footage showed concerned Good Samaritans rushing towards the spot where the explosion occurred after seeing a ball of flames rise into the air at the pleasure port in Cabo Roig, in Costa Blanca. 

Police have said they are currently treating the incident as an accident, with the possibility the explosion was caused by a fuel spill or engine failure being probed.

The unnamed Spanish man, the most seriously injured of the three casualties, was reportedly a local workman who had been cleaning the vessel when the incident happened. 

He suffered serious burns to the bottom half of his body.

The British man is thought to have been a customer that was chartering the boat. It was not immediately clear this morning if he remained in hospital or has now been released.

Firefighters were called but the blaze from the explosion had been put out by the time they arrived.

A spokesman for the Civil Guard said: 'An emergency response coordination centre received the alert just before 10am yesterday.

'The calls that came in said there had been a possible explosion on a pleasure boat in Cabo Roig port.

'Civil Guard officers based in nearby Pilar de la Horadada confirmed there had been an accidental explosion that had left three people injured when they arrived.

'They were a British man and a Lithuanian woman who were taken to Torrevieja Hospital and a Spanish man who was airlifted to Hospital de la Fe in Valencia.

'An investigation into the incident is ongoing.'