Fourteen people have been confirmed dead in a blast in a building in central Russia, AFP reported, quoting local officials as saying on Wednesday. The local governor’s office said that 14 bodies had been found and 27 people were reported missing after the explosion in Magnitogorsk, about 1,700 km east of capital Moscow.
The blast, which occurred in the 10-storey building on Monday, destroyed 35 apartments in the neighbourhood and damaged 10 more. The governor’s office added that five people, including a baby, had been rescued from the rubble and 86 residents were found unharmed. “Work at the scene is continuing,” it said.
The regional office of Russia’s Federal Security Service said that a gas leak had led to the mishap, RT reported. President Vladimir Putin had also inspected the site of the disaster.
An 11-month-old baby boy was rescued from the rubble after more than 35 hours. He was identified as Ivan Fokin, AP reported. According to officials, the baby suffered several fractures, a head injury and was suffering from hypothermia after being stuck beneath the rubble in temperatures of minus 20 degrees Celsius.
The baby was found when a rescuer heard him crying and “a large-scale operation was immediately organised,” Interfax news agency cited emergency officials as saying. The boy, whose mother escaped from the rubble with a three-year-old son, was flown to Moscow on Tuesday night for further treatment.
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