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Explosion at fireworks factory near St. Petersburg kills at least 2

At least two more people were injured in an explosion at a pyrotechnics plant outside St. Petersburg

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MOSCOW, October 19. /TASS/. Two dead bodies were found under the debris after an explosion at a pyrotechnical devices plant outside St. Petersburg, a spokesman for the Russian emergencies ministry told TASS on Friday.

According to the spokesman, a technological blast occurred at the Avangard plant in the town of Gatchina, Leningrad region.

"Two dead bodies have been found under the debris. Two more were hurt," the spokesman said.

A source in the local law enforcement agencies told TASS that three people, including a child, may be under the debris.

According to medics from Gatchina’s central clinic, five people were hospitalized following the blast, one of them in serious condition.

Fyodor Polshin, a spokesman for the Russian emergencies ministry’s Northwestern Center, told TASS that the blast had ruined 30% of the plant’s building, mostly production premises.

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