Death toll from Russian building collapse rises

MOSCOW, 02 Jan. - (ANA)  - Sixteen people are confirmed dead from the New Year's Eve collapse of an apartment building in the Urals city of Magnitogorsk, as rescuers continue to pull bodies from the rubble in frigid conditions and speculation about the cause of the disaster swirls.

The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said on January 2 that about 25 people remained unaccounted for after an explosion caused part of the building to collapse, leaving dozens of people homeless over the holiday.

One child was among those confirmed dead, the ministry said.

Russian authorities have said since shortly after the December 31 disaster that a natural-gas explosion was the most likely cause.

But in a statement issued on January 1, the federal Investigative Committee said the authorities were looking into "all possible causes" and added that no signs of a bomb blast have been found.

"In connection with various reports that have appeared in the media, it must be noted that at the present moment...no traces of explosives or their components have been found," the statement said.

The committee issued the statement after two media outlets cited unnamed sources as saying that possible traces of explosives were found at the site and that the blast that caused the collapse could have been a terrorist act.

The reports in znak.com and regional news site 74.ru, which could not be independently verified, also linked the building collapse with an incident late on January 1 in which a van caught fire some 3 kilometers from the site, killing three people.

The site 74.ru cited unnamed law enforcement sources as saying that the occupants of the vehicle were suspects who were being sought by police, possibly in connection with the building blast and collapse.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) said that there were two gas canisters in the vehicle, and the regional Interior Ministry branch said that the fire may have been caused by a gas-canister explosion.

Speculation was stoked by Internet-posted footage of the burning van in which a series of loud bangs that sound like gunfire can be heard.

Investigative Committee Director Aleksandr Bastrykin has set up an investigative group of some 100 officials to work on the case.

January 2 has been declared a day of morning in Chelyabinsk Oblast, where Magnitogorsk is located.

On January 1, an infant found by rescuers alive in the rubble some 35 hours after the explosion was flown to Moscow for medical treatment.

The TASS news agency reported the infant was found lying in his crib wrapped in layers of blankets, which likely saved his life.

The child -- identified as Ivan Fokin -- suffered frostbite, broken bones, and a head injury.

His mother and father survived the explosion and subsequent collapse of their apartment. The father, Yevgeny, has dubbed his son "a New Year's miracle."

Authorities had been forced to temporarily halt most of the rescue operations because of fears the efforts would dangerously shift rubble.

"There is a real risk that more sections of the building will collapse," Russian Emergency Situations Minister Yevgeny Zinichev said on January 1.

Later, rescuers removed some dangerous segments of the building and resumed their operations.

Rescuers had braved temperatures as low as minus 17 degree Celsius through the night in an effort to locate victims.

Large heaters were brought in to try to keep any possible survivors from freezing to death as the rescue operations continue.

"We must work as quickly as we can since temperatures do not give us any time to linger," Deputy Emergency Situations Minister Pavel Baryshev told journalists.

President Vladimir Putin traveled to the site on December 31 and met with local officials before visiting some of the injured at a nearby hospital.

According to the regional government, the explosion took place at 6:10 a.m. local time on December 31 in a complex of apartment buildings that was built in 1973 and houses some 1,100 people.

The Emergency Situations Ministry said on its website that, in all, 48 apartments from the third to the 10th floor in the building's central part were damaged by the explosion.

Magnitogorsk, an industrial city of some 400,000 people, is located some 1,700 kilometers southeast of Moscow.


Infant pulled alive from Russian apartment collapse


Rescuers on Tuesday pulled an infant boy alive from the rubble of an apartment building, some 35 hours after a collapse that killed at least seven people and left dozens missing.

They found the baby after hearing cries amid the debris. A section of the 10-story building in the city of Magnitogorsk collapsed on Monday following an explosion believed to have been triggered by a natural gas leak.

The boy was seriously injured and his recovery prospects were unclear.

The regional emergency ministry said earlier Tuesday that 37 residents of the building had not been accounted for. Hopes of finding survivors were dimmed by the harsh cold: Temperatures overnight were around minus 18 Celsius (0 Fahrenheit).  - (ANA) -

AB/ANA/02 January 2019 - - -