YEKATERINBURG, December 5. /TASS/. A helicopter of the sanitary aviation carrying taken onboard two persons, injured in an explosion at the Malyginskoye gas condensate field in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area in northwest Siberia, cannot make it to Salekhard, as planned, due to the thick fog in the area, press service of the local healthcare authorities told TASS on Saturday.
The helicopter had to land in Yamal’s Yar-Sala.
"The injured were taken to the local hospital, which has all equipment necessary for the required treatment," press secretary of the local healthcare department Olga Shulyak said. "The weather to Salekhard is bad - the fog is thick there."
Early on Saturday she said: "One of the injured had undergone a surgery at night, and the second one has received necessary assistance, but both of them remain in poor conditions."
Press service of the local governor reported six people killed or injured in the explosion. The information on the victims is not final yet: some sources claim three and others claim four dead. The regional sanitary aviation told TASS about four dead.
The press service of the local emergencies department said the blast had occurred at around 3.00 p.m. Moscow time in a trailer during the work on preparing explosive charges. The works were carried out by a subcontractor, Kostroma Geofisika. The gas field belongs to Gazprom.
The press service said an emergency response team had been set up to deal with the consequences. A pre-investigation check was underway.
Press service of the local governor said about an organised working group on the emergency. However, the specialists had left, but as yet they had not reached the site of accident.
The field is located at a distance of 130 kilometres from the nearest settlement and at a distance of 600 kilometres from the Yamal capital city Salekhard," the spokesman said.