Nine people were killed after a gas cylinder exploded in a five-story residential building in settlement of Tymovskoye on Russia’s Far Eastern Sakhalin Island on Saturday, Russian news agency TASS reported.
The explosion took place at around 5:03 a.m. Moscow time and four children among nine died in the incident. TASS reported citing local authorities that there were four children among those dead.
“Now the number of dead people has risen to nine. Four of them are children. It has now grown dark here but the rescue effort will continue at night,” the regional governor of Sakhalin, Valery Limarenko wrote on his telegram channel on Saturday.
According to emergency services, several more people remained under the debris of the apartment building.
Emergency responders reported that several more persons were still buried beneath the apartment complex’s debris.
“Several people remain under the rubble. Now the effort to remove the collapsed structures continues,” the emergency services said, reported TASS.
Notably, the 80-apartment five-story building was constructed in 1980. It wasn’t connected to a centralised infrastructure for gas supply and got a significant renovation in 2016. A makeshift shelter has been established where residents who were harmed by the tremendous explosion can find mattresses, hot meals, and other necessities. (ANI)
