MOSCOW, October 3. /TASS/.Five teenagers received serious burns in an accident that took place in a school sports auditorium in Russia’s North Caucasus of Dagestan on Tuesday evening, the Russian Emergencies Ministry’s press service said.
"An unidentified air-to-fuel mixture exploded in a sports hall of a school in Dagestan. As a result, five teenagers were injured," a press service official said.
The exact cause of the incident is now under investigation. A police source earlier said that the blast of a battery in an electronic weighing scale was considered as a possible cause. On the other hand, emergencies officials named a gas blast as a possible cause.
Regional emergencies sources earlier told TASS that the incident took place in the settlement of Ebdulaya at 20:36 Moscow time on Tuesday, when a group of teenagers had been measuring their weight in the coach’s room of the sports hall. "Five teenagers aged 15 and 16 were injured," one source said, adding that all of them were rushed to the hospital.
A local administrative chief, Shamil Dabishev, said the schoolchildren had up to 80% of their body surface area burned and were transported to the burns unit of the Republican Clinical Hospital in the capital, Makhachkala.
The hospital’s chief doctor, Gaziyav Musayev, said the patients received burns to between 40% and 90% of their body surface area, and their condition was critical.
"Today we received five patients, who suffered burns to between 40% and 80-90% of their bodies. At present, their condition is grave," he said. "We are now consulting with federal centers about the need and practicability of transporting the most gravely injured patients to federal centers."
Dagestan’s emergencies chief, Nariman Kazimagamedov, said the teenagers would later be flown to Moscow for further treatment.
"Right now, the subject of a medical transportation plane from Moscow is being taken care of. It will land here tomorrow, and they [the teenagers] will be flown to Moscow," he said. "We are now following the doctors’ orders… to send them to Moscow for further treatment."
The Dagestan office of the Russian Investigative Committee said a pre-investigation check was now underway to establish the cause and circumstances of the incident and establish whether a criminal case should be launched.