As many as 40 people could still be trapped in the rubble of a Russian apartment block that partially collapsed in a gas explosion on Monday, killing at least seven people, news agencies reported. President Vladimir Putin flew into Magnitogorsk late on Monday afternoon, visiting the injured in hospital and meeting with local authorities, state television showed. Emergencies Minister Yevgeny Zinichev said at a meeting with Putin there were “presumably between 36 and 40 people under the rubble” as of Monday evening, agencies reported. “We have found another three bodies but we cannot take them out (from under the rubble),” agencies quoted Zinichev as saying. In 2015, at least five people were killed when a gas explosion damaged an apartment building in the southern city of Volgograd.

Source: The Star January 01, 2019 08:37 UTC