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Cafe fire in Volgograd put out, 20 injured, no fatalities

The fire in the cafe was caused by a gas cylinder blast in the basement of the three-storey building

VOLGOGRAD, February 15 (Itar-Tass) — A fire that broke out in a Volgograd cafe on Tuesday night has been put out early Wednesday. Twenty people have been injured, an official at the regional center of the Russian Ministry for Emergencies (RME) has told Itar-Tass.

A city administration official has told Itar-Tass that the occupants of the building which housed the cafe have been accommodated in the municipal hotel of the Metroelectrotrans.

According to preliminary data, the fire in the cafe was caused by a gas cylinder blast in the basement of the three-storey building. The gas cyinder was intended for the heating of the cafe premises," the RME official said. Out of those 20 injured, three are in serious condition, and another three declined hospitalization. Seventeen people were hospitalized, Natalia Kunitskaya, assistant to the chief of the SKR (Investigation Commttee of Russia) center for Volgograd Region, has told Itar-Tass.

A first-floor apartment was gutted out as a result of the fire in the ground-floor cafe Beladzho on Ulitsa Mira (Peace Street) in the city's Central District. None of the occupants of the apartment in question was hurt.

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