MOSCOW, November 21. /TASS/. The death toll in a gas blast that hit a five-story apartment building on Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East has risen to ten people, the local emergency services told TASS on Monday.
"Ten people, including four children, died as a result of the explosion. Two other people were hospitalized and another four received medical aid at outpatient clinics," the authorities said.
Specialists inspected the apartment building’s structural safety with the help of a Strela surveying system. This work will be continued, the emergency services said.
A powerful explosion rocked a five-story residential building in the settlement of Tymovskoye on Russia’s Far Eastern Sakhalin Island at around 5:03 a.m. Moscow time on Saturday, causing the floors in one of its sections to collapse. It was previously reported that nine people, including four children, lost their lives in the blast.
As the local emergencies services told TASS, a 20-liter gas cylinder apparently connected to a kitchen stove exploded in one of the apartments, according to preliminary information. Utilizing such gas cylinders is prohibited on the premises of residential structures and regulations allow the use of only 5-liter gas storage tanks.
The five-story building hit by the gas blast was built in 1980. Its six sections with 80 apartments housed over 170 people. The section next to the devastated structure has been sealed off due to the danger of further collapse. The apartment building was not connected to any central gas supply.