(Reuters) -At least three people died on Monday and dozens more injured after an explosion near the Dominican Republic capital, authorities in the Caribbean country said.

The victims included a four-month-old baby and two adults, both of who who suffered burns on 90% of their bodies, the national health service said in a statement.

Thirty-three people were also injured in the explosion at a business in San Cristobal, west of the country's capital Santo Domingo, the statement said.

Images on social media appeared to show charred cars and billows of smoke rising from buildings in a busy commercial district.

President Luis Abinader said he had sent a team to San Cristobal and was coordinating with local authorities, he wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Boyle; Editing by Isabel Woodford)