STAVROPOL, November 28. /TASS/. Two people were killed as an explosion and fire ripped through a private brewery in the southern Russian town of Pyatigorsk, Stavropol region, the regional branch of the Russian Emergencies Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

According to the statement, two bodies were recovered after the fire had been extinguished. The firefighting effort involved 30 personnel and ten pieces of equipment.

The fire scorched an area of 20 square meters. A probe is underway to figure out the cause of the explosion.

Meanwhile, the Pyatigorsk administration has cited a statement by the Stavropolregiongaz gas company that the brewery had not been provided with permission to connect to the electrical grid. "The blast could have been caused by a process failure," the statement reads.