00:14, 16 January 2019

In Shakhty, death toll in explosion increases to four persons

Rescuers at the place of explosion in a multi-storey building in the city of Shakhty, January 14, 2019. Photo by Vyacheslav Prudnikov for the Caucasian Knot

In Shakhty, under the ruins at the place of explosion in a nine-storey building, rescuers found two more bodies. So, the death toll from the explosion increased to four persons. The fate of one more tenant still remains unknown.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in the morning on January 14, four apartments on the eighth and ninth floors collapsed in an explosion in a multi-storey building in Shakhty. By this morning, the bodies of two persons were found, and four victims were hospitalized.

93 persons are recognized as victims. 162 residents of the house affected by the explosion are evacuated, and they stay at a temporary accommodation centre. Today, tenants of the blocks not affected by the explosion are allowed entering their apartments to bring out their belongings.

The bodies of a man and a woman who lived in the apartment No. 58 have been found today, reports Vyacheslav Butko, the head of the Department for the Rostov Region of the Russian Ministry for Emergencies (MfE). According to him, the rescuers are still to find out the fate of one more person, the TASS reports.

"We have completely cleaned out all the rooms, except for one room. All efforts are made for search and rescue operations in this room," reports Vyacheslav Butko as quoted by the "Interfax".

Officials are to find a daughter of the man and the woman whose bodies have been taken out by the rescuers from under the ruins today, reports Vadim Artyomov, Deputy Governor of the Rostov Region.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 15, 2019 at 06:48 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.