Dozens feared dead in Russian building blast

Rescue workers search for survivors in the debris of an apartment building that collapsed after an explosion in the Northern Russian town of Arkhangelsk yesterday. Dozens feared dad while 21 bodies were recovered from rubbles of the apartment building in northern Russia that officials said was likely caused by a gas leak. PHOTO: AFP

More than 80 people were thought to be inside the building in the city of Arkhangelsk when the blast went off overnight, according to news agency and television reports.

Authorities refused to rule out terrorism amid heightened tension in Russia after a series of terrorist attacks blamed on Chechen rebels. In fall 1999, explosions blamed on rebels ripped through apartment buildings in Moscow and two other cities, killing some 300 people.

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But a gas leak was seen as the most likely cause, emergency workers said, after fire fighters responding to the scene reported a strong odor of gas and gas employees said leaks had been reported in other Arkhangelsk buildings overnight. The ITAR-Tass news agency, citing Natalya Ozhigina, a spokesman for the regional Federal Security Service agency, said that no explosive devices were found.

Tuesday's blast hit at 3:25 a.m. local time when most of the 80 residents registered in the building in Arkhangelsk, about 600 miles north of Moscow, would have been in bed, said Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Marina Ryklina.

"We were awakened by a terrible noise," Igor, 40, who lives in the adjoining section of the apartment building, told Arkhangelsk's Pravda Severa newspaper. "The wall of our bedroom came crashing down on the bed ... We were in a state of shock."

Twenty-three people were retrieved from under the rubble, along with 21 bodies, said Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Irina Andrianova. Earlier, spokesman Sergei Vlasov said that emergency officials believed around 50 people remained trapped under the debris.

Meanwhile, a section of high-voltage electricity line near Moscow was damaged when unknown assailants tried to blow it up, officials told Russian media Tuesday, adding that leftist radicals rather than Chechen rebels were suspected.

Technicians carrying out a routine inspection of power lines on Monday near Vidnoye, in the southern outskirts of the capital, found an undetonated explosive device as well as damage to some of the pylons supporting the lines, police said.