Russian Apartment Blast Kills 12: gas leak or terrorism possible causes

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Russian Apartment Blast Kills 12

6:10 am PST, 8 February 2000

KHABAROVSK. Feb 8 (Interfax) - Twelve people, among them two children, have died as the result of a 5:40 a.m. Tuesday morning apartment house explosion in Khabarovsk, in Russia's Far East. Seven survivors have been hospitalized with injuries of varying severity.

The fourth and fifth floors of the building have been cleared and rescue and excavation operations continue on the third, the Far Eastern center of the Emergency Situations Ministry told Interfax on Tuesday.

So far 11 bodies have been recovered. The father of one of the residents has told rescue workers that his son was asleep at the time of the explosion and therefore could not have left the building. His body has not yet been recovered, but he is being considered dead as there is deemed little chance that he could have survived the blast. Yet another person may remain under the rubble.

The cause of the explosion has not yet been established. A Federal Security Service (FSB) duty officer said it may have been caused by a gas leak or an act of terrorism.

http://7am.com/cgi-bin/wires02.cgi?1000_00020805.htm

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 08, 2000


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