Four dead after gas explosion in Russia

MOSCOW: Four people were killed and nearly 70 unaccounted for after a gas explosion tore through a residential building in Russia on Monday, leaving hundreds without a home in freezing temperatures on New Year´s Eve.

A large section of the building collapsed after a gas explosion around 6am local time at the high-rise in the industrial city of Magnitogorsk, nearly 1,700 kilometres east of Moscow in the Ural mountains.

Four people were confirmed dead and another four, including two children, were hospitalised, officials said, citing the latest information. Sixteen people including seven children have been evacuated.

The whereabouts of 28 people have been established but the fate of nearly 70 was unclear. National television said some 50 people could be trapped under the rubble.

National television broadcast footage of rescue workers combing through mangled heaps of concrete and metal in temperatures of minus 18 Celsius. Temperatures in Magnitogorsk were expected to plunge to minus 23 Celsius on New Year´s night, the biggest holiday of the year in Russia.