An explosion was heard in New York City, one of the world's largest mega-cities, on Friday. Chilling videos circulating on social media show a massive cloud of black smoke rising from one of the streets of the city.

On Friday, at around 10am ET, a large fire occurred near 305 East 95th Street in Manhattan, not far from Central Park. The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear. More than 100 firefighters and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel rushed to the scene. The fire spread to the top-floor apartments, with no occupants found in the units, according to Citizen. Its superintendent, who was in the basement at the time, is being treated for minor injuries, ABC 7 reported.

A witness shared on X, formerly known as Twitter: "Just witnessed an explosion in NYC while on a video call! Never experienced anything like this before!"

A user named Jimmy shared a video with flames on top of a building. He wrote: "Yes, there was a loud boom just before the fire and smoke started."

The FDNY shared a video of operating at a "3-alarm fire". EMS was also at the scene, with two ladder trucks. Crews continued to work for hours to keep the fire under control.

Three-alarm fire rating means it requires a large personnel and resources to extinguish.

The 59-unit red brick apartment building was built in 1910 and has six floors. Street Easy profile reported it does have a 'roof deck'.

Firefighter David Martinez told Daily Mail he was battling fires inside for "quite some time". He said crews were unsure of the exact cause but had the fire under control.

He said: "We were going room to room, I was at the end of the hose trying to keep it down... it was so hot."