Nobody else injured in the Rome blast.

A Scottish tourist was left with horrific burns on Sunday after the B&B apartment in which he was staying in Rome was destroyed in an explosion caused by a suspected gas leak.

The man, identified by Italian media as 54-year-old Grant Paterson, was staying in the two-storey building in the Monteverde district of the capital.

The incident occurred at around 09.00 on Sunday morning at the intersection between Via Vitellia and Via Pio Foà near the Villa Pamphilj park.

Firefighters extracted him alive from the rubble and he was rushed to the S. Eugenio hospital with burns to 70 per cent of his body.

There was nobody else injured in the incident which reduced the building to a pile of rubble and damaged several cars.

Eye-witnesses spoke of hearing an explosion "like a bomb" before emergency services arrived on the scene.

Rome mayor Roberto Gualtieri visited the site and said a full investigation would be carried out to clarify the cause of the blast.

Italian writer Roberto Saviano, who has been under police protection since 2006 after his book Gommorah exposed the dealings of the Neapolitan Camorra, lived at the same address until a few days ago.

In a post on Instagram, Saviano thanked everyone for their concerns and said he hoped that Paterson will recover soon, adding: "How heartbreaking to see a place where I loved to live in ruins."

Photo Vigili del Fuoco