Thirty-nine people have been killed in an apartment building collapse this week in the industrial Russian city of Magnitogorsk as emergency workers wrapped up a search operation. The casualty count has progressively increased since the 10-story building fell on Dec. 31 in what the authorities described as a gas explosion. In a separate incident the next day that was also attributed to gas, a minibus explosion on the same street killed three unidentified people. As of Thursday evening, rescuers have recovered 39 bodies from the rubble and said there were no more to be found.

news Baby Boy Found Alive After 35 Hours Under Rubble After Russia Blast Read more

“The last body was retrieved half an hour ago. The search and rescue operation is complete,” Deputy Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Chupriyan was quoted as saying by the state-run TASS news agency. The ministry said at least six children were among the victims. Another six people were found alive, including an infant whose rescue was described as a New Year’s “miracle.” The governor of Chelyabinsk region, where Magnitogorsk is located 1,700 kilometers east of Moscow, pledged 1 million rubles ($14,400) to the relatives of each victim. Meanwhile, speculation has swirled around the successive explosions of the Soviet-era apartment block on Monday followed by the minibus on Tuesday. Footage shared by local media showed the minibus engulfed in a blaze accompanied by the sound of either explosives or gunshots.

news 3 Killed in Magnitogorsk Minibus Blast After Deadly Apartment Explosion Read more</s>Magnitogorsk The death toll from a gas explosion in eastern Russia has risen to 39 after rescuers pulled two more bodies from under the rubble. The blast on the morning of New Year’s Eve caused the partial collapse of an apartment block in the industrial city of Magnitogorsk, near the Kazakhstan border. Moscow said that the search-and-rescue operation was over. (Reuters)

Bolsonaro may agree to host US military base 

Sao Paulo Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, said in a television interview that he was open to discussing the possibility of hosting a United States military base. Mr Bolsonaro, 63, a former army captain who was sworn into office on Tuesday, also said that Brazil should be worried about Russian ties to the “dictatorship” in Venezuela. (…</s>MOSCOW - Twenty-eight bodies have been recovered from the debris of an apartment block in Russia that partially collapsed in an apparent explosion, while 13 people remained unaccounted for, the regional emergencies ministry said on Wednesday.

The blast initially thought to have been caused by a gas leak, damaged 48 apartments in a 10-storey building in the industrial city of Magnitogorsk in the early hours on Monday, 1,700 km east of Moscow.

A baby boy was found alive on Tuesday after 35 hours spent in freezing cold in the rubble, in what emergency officials described as a miracle.

The emergencies ministry said more than 900 people were carrying out the search and rescue operation at the site. It said six people have been rescued.

The reason behind the collapse of the apartment block is still being investigated, the Investigative Committee, which probes into major cries, said on its website.

It said no trace of explosives materials had been found so far on the site. The initial reports put a possible gas leak behind the collapse.

There have been several similar incidents in the country in recent years due to ageing infrastructure and poor safety regulations about gas usage.

In a separate incident in the same street late on Tuesday, three people died when a minibus became engulfed in flames, TASS news agency reported citing the local government office.

Video footage purporting to show the incident, posted on social media sites, shows a burning vehicle and some bangs are heard. A police spokesman declined to comment when contacted by phone.</s>Moscow - Eighteen bodies have been recovered from the debris of an apartment block in Russia that partially collapsed in an apparent explosion, while 23 people remained unaccounted for, the regional emergencies ministry told Reuters on Wednesday. The blast, initially thought to have been caused by a gas leak, damaged 48 apartments in a 10-storey building in the industrial city of Magnitogorsk in the early hours on Monday, 1 700 km (1 050 miles) east of Moscow.

A baby boy was found alive on Tuesday after 35 hours spent in freezing cold in the rubble, in what emergency officials described as a miracle.

The reason behind the collapse of the apartment block is still being investigated, the Investigative Committee, which probes into major cries, said on its website.

It said no trace of explosives materials had been found so far on the site. The initial reports put a possible gas leak behind the collapse.

There have been several similar incidents in the country in recent years due to ageing infrastructure and poor safety regulations about gas usage.</s>Rescuers have retrieved another body from the collapsed residential building in Magnitogorsk, Russia, raising the death toll to 38, according to the Emergencies Ministry.

The deceased was a woman, it said. Three people are still missing at this stage, and the search and rescue effort is in full swing.

The house collapsed on December 31, with a gas leak being the likeliest cause of the tragedy.</s>MOSCOW (AFP) - The number of people confirmed dead in a New Year's Eve gas explosion that caused a Russian apartment block to partially collapse has risen to 37, officials said on Thursday (Jan 3), with four people still missing.

Six children were among the dead, the Emergency Situations Ministry said in a statement, while six people had been rescued from the rubble of the building in the Ural mountains city of Magnitogorsk.

The explosion tore through the 10-storey building in the industrial city nearly 1,700km east of Moscow in the early hours of Monday.

Officials had given a toll of 28 dead as of late Wednesday.

Rescuers have been braving freezing temperatures to search through mangled concrete and metal, but no survivors have been found since Tuesday, when a baby boy was pulled from the rubble.

The Soviet-era apartment block was home to about 1,100 people and the explosion left dozens homeless over the New Year - the biggest holiday of the year in Russia.</s>The number of dead from a New Year's Eve gas explosion in a Russian apartment block jumped to 39 on Thursday as rescuers finished searching for bodies in the rubble of the partially collapsed building.

Russian official Alexandre Tchouprian said that 38 of the 39 bodies had been identified and no more were expected to be found at the site in the Ural mountains city of Magnitogorsk.

"The emergency services have nothing more to do here - the work is finished," Tchouprian was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

Nearly 900 people involved in rescue and recovery efforts braved temperatures as low as minus 27 degrees Celsius to search through mangled concrete and metal at the site.

Six people including two children were rescued at the site, but no survivors have been found since Tuesday when a 10-month-old boy was retrieved in what officials described as a "New Year's miracle".

The explosion tore through the 10-storey building in the industrial city nearly 1,700 kilometres east of Moscow in the early hours of Monday.

The Soviet-era block was home to about 1,100 people and the explosion destroyed 35 apartments, leaving dozens homeless.

A bridge had been built to reach higher areas and one of the building's walls was taken down as it was threatening to collapse on rescue workers.

Financial help for victims

On Thursday, residents of other parts of the building were to be allowed to enter their apartments, in half-hour stretches, to recover some belongings, the ministry said.

All the survivors were in a stable condition, said the office of Chelyabinsk regional governor Boris Dubrovsky, who visited several of them in hospital on Thursday.

The health ministry also said that Vanya, the baby boy rescued on Tuesday, was recovering in hospital.

His condition was "stable, with some improvement", Russian news agencies quoted the ministry as saying.

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

Dubrovsky's office said the governor had approved new financial assistance to the victims, including payments of one million rubles ($14,500, 12,700 euros) to the families of those killed and 400,000 rubles for those injured.

Families who lost their apartments would receive payments of up 500,000 rubles, as well as being provided with new homes.

Financial assistance was also to be provided to help pay for funerals, the first six of which were to be held on Friday, the governor's office said.

The explosion, which officials have said was likely caused by a gas leak, happened as most of the building's residents were asleep.

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

Investigators have launched a probe, but have said there is no reason to suspect foul play.

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

Located in the mineral-rich southern Urals, Magnitogorsk, with a population of more than 400,000, is home to one of Russia's largest steel producers.</s>MOSCOW: Russian rescuers on Tuesday pulled a baby girl alive from the ruins of an apartment block that collapsed in a gas explosion more than a day earlier, amid freezing temperatures.

"The rescuers heard crying. The baby was saved by being in a cradle and warmly wrapped up," Chelyabinsk regional governor Boris Dubrovsky wrote on his Telegram channel.

The baby girl aged 11 months was taken to hospital and is now being checked for fractures, a medic at the hospital where she is being treated told TASS news agency.

"The little girl is conscious. The prognosis is positive."

Part of the 10-storey appartment building collapsed following a gas explosion on Monday morning in the industrial city of Magnitogorsk, nearly 1,700 kilometres (1,050 miles) east of Moscow in the Ural mountains.

The baby was found after rescuers were forced to temporarily halt the search for dozens of missing people in the rubble for fear the rest of the block could come down.

The child survived temperatures that fell overnight to around minus 27 degrees celsius (minus 16 degrees Fahrenheit), TASS reported.

So far the incident has claimed at least seven lives and only six survivors have been found, including a 13-year-old boy.

The Soviet-era appartment block was home to around 1,100 people. The blast completely destroyed 35 flats while 10 more were damaged. Residents left homeless were evacuated to a nearby school.

Battling the freezing temperatures, rescuers had worked through the night combing through debris and trying to stabilise the remaining walls.

But on Tuesday morning, the head of Russia's emergencies ministry, Yevgeny Zinichev, said the operations had to be temporarily halted.

There is a "real threat of part of the building collapsing", Zinichev said.

"It's impossible to continue working in such conditions."

He added that efforts to stabilise the walls could take up to 24 hours, with emergency workers dismantling the building from the outside while hanging from cranes.

After an all-night search, officials said Tuesday morning they had found seven bodies, all of them adults, while another 37 people remained unaccounted for.

Day of mourning

 The regional governor Boris Dubrovsky announced a day of mourning on January 2, with flags lowered and entertainment events cancelled, as the disaster toll set a sombre mood in Russia where New Year's Eve celebrations are the biggest annual festivities.

President Vladimir Putin on Monday rushed to the scene, where the blast left hundreds of residents homeless in freezing temperatures.

"It is in the character of our people, despite New Year's festivities, to remember to think of the dead and wounded at this moment," a grim-looking Putin said.

National television showed rescue workers searching through mangled heaps of concrete and metal.

"I went out to have a cigarette at quarter-to-six," a local man told Russian television. "There was a blast and a wave of fire... then people started running out."

Other witnesses said the explosion was strong enough to shatter the windows of nearby buildings.

"I woke up and felt myself falling. The walls were gone. My mother was screaming and my son had been buried," said another witness.

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.

Investigators have opened a criminal probe into the accident, with the FSB security service confirming the blast was the result of a gas explosion.

Such deadly gas explosions are relatively common in Russia where much of the infrastructure dates back to the Soviet era and safety requirements are often ignored.</s>Six more bodies have been pulled from the rubble after an explosion at a block of flats in southern Russia, bringing the death toll to 14, local authorities confirmed Wednesday.

The Russian ministry of emergencies said the bodies, including a child, had been recovered from a section of the partially collapsed building in the city of Magnitogorsk.</s>Thirty-seven bodies have been recovered from the rubble of a Russian apartment building that partially collapsed this week after an apparent gas explosion, Russian news agencies are reporting.

The blast early on December 31 damaged 48 apartments in a 10-storey building in the industrial city of Magnitogorsk, some 1700km east of Moscow.

The death toll has progressively risen in the past few days as rescuers battle blisteringly cold temperatures to recover people trapped under the rubble.

As of Thursday morning (local time), the bodies of 22 of the 37 dead had been identified, agencies cited the local branch of the emergencies ministries as saying.

Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, has said it is still investigating the exact cause of the blast.

It said no traces of explosives had been found at the site. Initial reports attributed the blast to a gas explosion.

Gas explosions are relatively common in Russia because of ageing infrastructure and poor safety regulations surrounding gas use.
The death toll of an explosion caused by a gas leak that devastated a block of flats in Magnitogorsk, Russia, rises to 39. Rescuers end their search efforts at the collapse site as there are no more missing people.