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Death toll in Russia's barrack collapse tragedy reaches 18

Five servicemen remain under the debris

MOSCOW, July 13. /TASS/. The death toll in Sunday’s collapse of the Russian Airborne Troops training center barracks in the Omsk Region has reached 18 people, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Gen.-Maj. Igor Konashenkov said on Monday.

"As of 8:30 Moscow Time, 37 servicemen have been retrieved from the rubble, 18 of them dead. A total of 19 servicemen are in medical institutions," the spokesman said.

Five servicemen remain under the rubble at the scene of the collapse, and a search for them is ongoing.

The major effort on removing the debris has been already completed and the search has been carried out on the building’s second, third and fourth floors. No servicemen have been found there, Konashenkov said.

The central military hospitals in Moscow are prepared to treat servicemen injured in the accident. "The first military-transport aircraft with eight injured servicemen will be sent to Moscow from Omsk in the coming minutes," he stressed.

A section of the four-story barracks of the Airborne Troops training center in Omsk collapsed at 19:52 Moscow Time (1652 GMT) on Sunday. There were 337 servicemen inside

A regional law enforcement source earlier said the accident might have been caused by violations during repair work.

"The barracks in the village of Svetly recently underwent repairs. According to one of the versions, errors possibly occurred during the repair, including a change in design of the building," the source said. "This version will be checked."

He said the external wall and roof partially collapsed. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has ordered inspections of all buildings repaired in a military town in the Omsk Region in Siberia.