A British tourist is said to have been seriously injured in Rome after the B&B apartment he was staying in was destroyed in an explosion.

The man was rescued from a pile of debris after the two-storey building in the city’s Monteverde neighbourhood collapsed at around 9am on Sunday.

The 54-year-old was named in Italian media but has not been formally identified.

A Facebook page linked to the name suggested he had been in Rome sightseeing since mid-March.

The social media account’s owner said he arrived on March 17 and was staying in “beautiful accommodation”.

The man added: “This should be a good week ... if I don’t get killed in some ungodly way.”

‘It was like a terrifying bomb’

A witness told Rai television news: “I was stopped at the traffic lights at the intersection when I heard an explosion.

“It was like a bomb, a terrifying bomb.”

A woman, who only gave her name as Liliana and lives in the same street, said she was cleaning her apartment when she heard the explosion.

She added: “It seemed like a bomb. The windows shook.”