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Lethal blast rocks Moscow flats Lethal blast rocks Moscow flats
(about 13 hours later)
An explosion has ripped through an apartment block in northern Moscow, killing at least two people and triggering a big fire. An explosion has ripped through a high-rise block of flats in the north of Moscow, killing at least three people and triggering a big fire.
Dozens of people were evacuated to a nearby school as firefighters battled the blaze. Dozens of people were evacuated to a school as firemen battled the blaze.
The cause of the blast is not yet clear. The 22-storey building on Academician Korolyov Street is supplied with electricity, but not gas. The mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzkhov, said the blast had been caused by an accident with gas-powered welding equipment in a flat under repair.
Reports say the blast happened just above the 11th floor on Friday evening. Police said a criminal investigation had been opened into whether safety regulations had been breached.
Television footage of the 22-storey building after the fire was extinguished showed at least three badly damaged flats on its 10th, 11th and 12th floors. The flats' exterior wall were blown out.
"I was parking my car and heard an explosion, turned around and saw fragments falling and a fire," a witness told NTV. "There was a smell of sulphur."
Mr Luzkhov said two men and a woman had been found dead so far but added that the death toll might rise as rescue workers removed a collapsed ceiling on the 10th floor.