On this day: October 21

A distressed woman is helped from the scene at Clarkston Toll in Glasgow.

This day in 1971 saw a huge gas explosion in Glasgow.

Just before 3pm, the explosion, the equivalent of a 1,000lb bomb, ripped through the shopping precinct at Clarkston Toll on the city’s south side - reducing a row of shops to rubble, killing 22 people.

110 others were injured.

A section of the road at Clarkston Toll in Glasgow, after a faulty gas main exploded killing 22 shoppers and injuring hundreds in October 1971.

A strong smell of gas had been reported the day before and repair work had been carried out but the cause of the Clarkston disaster was never found.

The official inquiry lasted just 19 days and laid the blame on no-one.

As the majority of the victims were women, out shopping for their families, rather than working men, the compensation paid was minimal.

It would take over 30 years before a memorial was erected at Clarkston Toll.