Gas explosion hits Russia apartment

Blast destroys residential building in Kazan, 700km east of Moscow, killing eight.

Kazan, the capital of the Tatarstan republic, gas blast
The rescue work took place on Wednesday in Kazan's icy subzero environment [EPA]
‘Huge bang’
 
Television pictures showed emergency rescue workers and machinery searching for survivors in the smouldering rubble of the apartment building as shocked locals looked on.
 
A witness from a nearby apartment told Russia’s Channel One television: “A huge bang woke me up and glass began to shower down on me. I went onto the balcony and I heard screaming. Everything was on fire.”
 
A woman who lived in the building told the Russian Vesti-24 television station: “We found our grandmother but we are still missing our grandfather and our seven-year-old girl.”
 
The explosion happened shortly after midnight on Wednesday.
 
Such incidents have become commonplace in Russia’s ageing apartment buildings.
Source: News Agencies