On Sunday July 12, shortly before 8 p.m., four floors of one section of the Russian Airborne Troops Training Center Barracks collapsed. There were 337 men inside the building during the incident. The barracks is located in the Omsk region, Southern Russia, North of Kazakhstan, according to CNN News.
An immediate rescue operation was done to retrieve the victims. Soldiers formed a human chain to pass debris in order to clear the pile, hoping to save some - if not all - of their fellow soldiers. Aids, such as search dogs and rescue workers, have also been sent from Moscow to make the operation faster, according to Skynews.
"As of 8:30 Moscow time, 37 servicemen have been retrieved from the rubble, 18 of them dead. A total of 19 servicemen are in medical institutions," said Gen. Maj. Igor Konashenkov, the Defense Ministry spokesman.
Some of the officials are considering repair work violations as the possible cause of the accident.
"The barracks in the village of Svetly recently underwent repairs. According to one of the versions, errors possibly occurred during the repair, including a change in design of the building. This version will be checked," said one of the regional law enforcement sources, according to Tass Russian News Agency
The soldiers in the center for paratroopers were about to rest when the building collapsed. They were all conscripts. The youngest of those who died was 18-years-old. Some of the survivors were flown to Moscow for immediate treatment. Russia's defense ministry responded quickly enough to announce the financial aid for those who have been affected, but this incident will create a greater impact on the Russian president's political image, as he had been investing so much in the modernization of the military, according to BBC News.
