Rescuers pull more bodies from rubble of Russian gas explosion

Rescuers hunted for survivors Wednesday in the rubble of
a Russian apartment building hit by a New Year’s Eve gas explosion, but
found only bodies as the number of confirmed dead rose to 18.

RUSSIAN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS MINISTRY/AFP

Nearly two dozen people were still
missing following the explosion, which destroyed 35 apartments in the
high-rise in the city of Magnitogorsk in the Ural mountains.

Braving temperatures that fell as low as minus
27 degrees Celsius (minus 16 degrees Fahrenheit), rescue workers were
combing through mangled concrete and metal.

Their
efforts were given a boost on Tuesday when a 10-month-old baby boy was
found alive and reunited with his mother. But hope was starting to fade
of finding many more survivors.

The emergency situations ministry said in a
statement that as of 12:15 Moscow time (0915 GMT) the bodies of 18
people, including two children, had been recovered from the partly
collapsed building.

Six people, including two children, had been rescued and 23 people were still missing.

“Work at the scene is continuing,” it said,
noting that 800 square metres of debris — loaded into 50 dump trucks —
had been cleared from the site in the last 24 hours.

The explosion, believed to have been caused by
a gas leak, tore through the nine-storey building in Magnitogorsk, an
industrial town nearly 1,700 kilometres (1,050 miles) east of Moscow, in
the early hours of Monday.

Witnesses described a “wave of fire” from the
explosion and said the blast was strong enough to shatter windows in
nearby buildings.

The Soviet-era apartment block was home to
about 1,100 people and the blast left dozens homeless over the New Year
— the biggest holiday of the year in Russia.

‘New Year’s miracle’

Tuesday’s recovery of the infant boy offered a
rare moment of hope, with officials describing his rescue as a “New
Year’s miracle”.

The boy was found in his cradle after rescuers
heard him crying from within the rubble. He was brought to his mother,
who had survived the blast, and then flown to Moscow for treatment.

Russian television showed footage of the boy lying in a hospital bed watched by his tearful mother.

Medical officials in Moscow said the boy was
in serious but stable condition after suffering from severe frostbite, a
head injury and multiple fractures.

Residents left homeless by the explosion were being housed in a nearby school and helped by a team of psychologists.

Wednesday was a day of mourning in the region,
with flags lowered and entertainment events cancelled, in a country
where New Year’s Eve celebrations are an annual highlight.

Mourners laid flowers and lit candles near the site of the building.

“We are all grieving,” a middle-aged man told
Rossiya 24 television. “Nearly everyone in the city knew someone” caught
up in the accident, he said.

Investigators have said there is no reason to suspect foul play in the blast.

Rumours have swirled on social media of a
possible terror link, especially after a minibus explosion on Tuesday
that killed three people.

“No traces of explosives or their components
have been found” at the scene, the federal Investigative Committee said
in a statement.

Local authorities have said the minibus
explosion was the result of leaking gas tanks and that there was no link
between the two blasts.

Gas explosions are relatively common in
Russia, where much of the infrastructure dates back to the Soviet era
and safety requirements are often ignored.

Investigative Committee chief Alexander
Bastrykin told Russian television that gas equipment in the Magnitogorsk
building had not been checked for more than six months prior to the
explosion.

Located in the mineral-rich southern Urals
region, Magnitogorsk, with a population of more than 400,000 people, is
home to one of the country’s largest steel producers.