An explosion blamed on a natural gas leak destroyed a section of a nine-story apartment building in the northern Russian city of Arkhan-gelsk early yesterday as residents slept, killing at least 15 people and leaving dozens trapped, rescuers said.
Authorities refused to rule out terrorism amid heightened tension in Russia after a series of terrorist attacks blamed on Chechen rebels. In 1999, explosions blamed on rebels ripped through apartment buildings in Moscow and two other cities, killing some 300 people.
Yesterday's blast hit at 3:25am when most of the 80 residents registered in the building in Arkhangelsk, about 960km north of Moscow, would have been at home and in bed, said Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Marina Ryklina.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Eighteen people have been retrieved from under the rubble, said Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Sergei Vlasov. He said that emergency officials believed around 50 people remained trapped under the debris.
Valery Ishchenko, chief of the local rescue headquarters, said that five bodies were recovered, and 20 people received medical treatment.
The explosion sheared a whole section of the building off, leaving huge chunks of debris. Windows in neighboring buildings were blown out by the force of the blast.
Russian state television showed footage of rescue crews clambering over the debris, using power saws to cut through piles of building materials as cranes lifted off the biggest beams.
Authorities said a gas leak was the most likely cause of the blast, though other causes, including terrorism, were not ruled out.
"The base version is a natural gas explosion," Vladimir Lobanov, a regional official, told Russian state television. He said gas officials were checking all buildings in the area.
City fire service official Alexei Semyonov said that there was a strong smell of gas at the blast site and that gas leaks had been reported in other Arkhangelsk buildings overnight, according to remarks shown on Russian television. Citing an unidentified gas worker, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported that overnight repair teams had to fix gas leaks in two neighboring buildings after discovering "plugs unscrewed from the gas pipes" -- hinting at possible sabotage.
A fire broke out after the building section collapsed, complicating rescue efforts, the Interfax news agency reported. An Il-76 cargo plane arrived in Arkhangelsk from Moscow, carrying more rescue workers and heavy equipment. Two Mi-8 helicopters also departed from Karelia, bringing rescue crews and search dogs, Vlasov said.
Arkhangelsk prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into the case on charges of death by negligence and causing damage through negligence, a standard procedure, Interfax reported. The General Prosecutor's Office said it wasn't excluding any possibility, but the main likelihood remained a gas explosion.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS