Russian apartment block blast kills 3, dozens missing

Russian apartment block blast kills 3, dozens missing

The section of the building may have collapsed due to a natural gas blast.

Russian news agencies say at least 2 people died and 10 were rescued after a section of a high rise housing apartment collapsed in Magnitogorsk.
MOSCOW:
Russian rescuers were on Monday searching for people still trapped under the rubble of a city apartment block that partly collapsed in a suspected gas blast, killing at least three, RIA said.

Russia’s emergencies ministry told the news agency that four people had been recovered alive from the nine-storey building in Magnitogorsk, an industrial city some 1,700 km east of Moscow in the southern Urals.

News agency TASS said 79 people were unaccounted for, quoting Chelyabinsk regional Deputy Governor Oleg Klimov.

The emergencies ministry said the blast, probably caused by a gas leak, damaged 48 apartments.

RIA said it ripped through the building at around 0600am (0100 GMT) when many residents were asleep. Monday is a public holiday in Russia.

There have been several similar incidents in Russia in recent years due to ageing infrastructure and poor safety regulations surrounding gas usage.

In 2015, at least five people were killed when a gas explosion damaged an apartment building in the southern Russian city of Volgograd.

Stay current - Follow FMT on WhatsApp, Google news and Telegram

Subscribe to our newsletter and get news delivered to your mailbox.