'Horrendous' car explosion 'shook whole house'

The car was destroyed in the explosion. Photo / James Allan

Residents living near a Queenstown park where a person died after a car explosion have described it as "horrendous" and said it "shook the whole house".

Emergency services were called to the car fire about 9.30pm yesterday.

Lindsay Shaw, whose house looks across the park, told Radio New Zealand her "whole house shook" when the car went up in flames.

"It was just a horrendous explosion. We could see that there was a vehicle engulfed in flames; it was instant," she said. "This was quite a bang. The whole house reverberated."

Shaw said she believed a gas bottle may have exploded because of how quickly the fire took hold of the vehicle.

Police said they were still trying to identify the person killed. The body remained in the car overnight, Radio New Zealand reported.

Otago Lakes area commander Inspector Olaf Jensen said police and fire would be back at Jardine Park today to determine the cause of the fire.

"We cannot speculate on how the fire may have started," he said.

Armed police at the cordon of the scene at Kelvin Heights in Queenstown after a car exploded. Photo/James Allan

Southern Fire Communications spokeswoman Lyn Crosson said a specialist fire investigator would be going back to the wreckage this morning to work out why the car to burst into flames.

A photographer at the scene last night said the entire suburb of Kelvin Heights was blocked off by armed police.

He could not get within 5km of Jardine Park. A tour bus and about 20 cars were among those stopped by the cordon.

Police at the scene of a car explosion which killed a person in Kelvin Heights Queenstown. Photo/James Allan

Nickie Hay lives on Kelvin Pl, near the park, and heard a big bang.

"One of our girls was in the shower and we ran because we thought she'd fallen over, but then we could hear her singing. Gosh, we jumped up. We said 'what the heck is that?' It was a real thud."

An Otago Daily Times reporter in Queenstown said a cordon had been set up at the intersection of State Highway 6 and Peninsula Rd, about 7km from Jardine Park.

A fire service spokeswoman said they had extinguished the blaze, but police and one appliance remained at the scene.

Armed police at the cordon of the scene at Kelvin Heights in Queenstown after a car explosion which killed a person. Photo/James Allan

A witness could see the exploded vehicle in the middle of a large field and said it had been destroyed.

A photo from the scene shows a burned-out vehicle, with its hood up and emergency services nearby. The vehicle appears to be a station wagon.