MOSCOW, August 16. /TASS/. An Il-76 plane of the Russian emergencies ministry carrying 16 people injured in Monday’s gas station blast in Russia’s North Caucasus region of Dagestan, landed in Moscow early on Wednesday, the ministry told TASS.
"The plane landed at Zhukovsky Airport at 02:30 a.m. [Moscow time]," the ministry said.
A medical source told TASS that "the victims were receiving all the required medical assistance throughout the flight." Their condition did not aggravate during the transportation.
According to Igor Yakirevich, who heads the ministry’s Tesntrospas central airmobile rescue team, the plane brought to Moscow 16 people, including three children. Six of the victims were connected to lung ventilators.
The plane took off from Makhachkala at 11:40 p.m. Moscow time. Patients will be taken to various federal hospitals and other clinics in Moscow, accompanied by teams of doctors from the Russian Health Ministry’s Federal Disaster Medicine Center.
An explosion rocked a filling station in a Makhachkala suburb on Monday evening, leaving 35 people dead and 80 injured. The Investigative Committee has initiated a probe. Russian President Vladimir Putin offered condolences to the families of those killed in the accident. A day of mourning has been declared in Dagestan.