ST. PETERSBURG, December 27. /ITAR-TASS/. Residents are being evacuated from a nine-storey residential building in Russia’s second largest city of St. Petersburg after a blast occurred in an apartment on the ninth floor, a spokesman for the local emergencies department told Itar-Tass on Friday.

According to the spokesman, the last was accompanied by fire that has already been extinguished. Rescuers do not rule out that it was a household gas explosion.