9 killed in suspected gas blast in Russia

A suspected gas explosion early Saturday in a five-storey residential building killed nine people in Russia’s southeastern Sakhalin Island, the local governor said.

The blast occurred in a five-storey brick building built in the 1980s in the village of Tymovskoye, TASS news agency reported. Around 33 people were presumed to have been living in the building.

“Nine people were killed, including four children,” the region’s governor Valery Limarenko told the Rossia 24 television channel.

The emergencies ministry said preliminary information pointed to a gas leak, adding that many storeys had collapsed.

TASS quoted a source in the emergency services as saying a 20-litre gas cylinder connected to a cooking stove had blown up. The building did not have a central gas heating system. A criminal investigation has been launched.

Images aired on television showed a white building with brown balconies that was partly demolished.

Some of the bodies have been pulled out of the debris while a search is on for others who could be trapped under the rubble. The emergencies ministry said 60 rescuers had been deployed.

Those affected by the explosion have been offered temporary shelter and the homeless families will be paid 5,00,000 rubles (around $8,217). News agencies reported that families of the victims are likely to receive one million rubles as compensation.

Sandwiched between the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan, Sakhalin is north of the Japanese territory of Hokkaido and has a population of around 500,000.