At least one person died and eight others were injured Sunday afternoon after an explosion that officials have blamed on natural gases hit an apartment and set it ablaze in Volgograd in southern Russia.
The incident occurred around midday in a seventh floor apartment of the nine-story building, leaving a majority of one side of the building in ruins and other floors with extensive fire damage, according to USA Today.
The numbers pertaining to those impacted by the explosion are somewhat unclear. Olag Grenbenyuk, head of the emergency ministry's Volgograd division was quoted by the Tass News Agency as saying that one person has died, but the Interfax news agency quoted several local law enforcement around the same time as saying that at least five were killed.
However, the rest of their reports align with one another. Both report sources saying that about 12 more could be trapped beneath the debris, and that the Russian Investigative Committee reports 150 people lived in the section affected by the blast. For the time being, those forced to leave are being house in a nearby school, according to ABC News.
News of the incident follows a similar one that occurred a week ago at a psychiatric clinic in Voronezh, south of Moscow, when a fire swept through the building, killing 23 people.
Gas blasts of this nature are fairly common in Russia, reported Reuters. Thanks to aging Soviet-era infrastructure, and often neglected safety requirements.
