MOSCOW (AP) — A gas explosion in an apartment building outside Moscow on Wednesday killed two people and injured at least five others, law enforcement officials said. Russian media said more people may be under the rubble.
The blast occurred in a nine-story building in Noginsk, a town 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Moscow. The blast affected the lower part of the building, damaging about 30 apartments. Local authorities evacuated 170 people from the building.
A man and a woman were killed, and five others injured, according to the Moscow regional branch of Russia’s Investigative Committee.
The state Tass news agency said 51 people were rescued from the damaged part of the building and more people may still be under the rubble. The agency cited local emergency officials as saying that 14 people were injured and six of them were hospitalized.
The varying numbers of the wounded could not be immediately reconciled.
The authorities launched a criminal probe into the explosion, which is common in such cases. The governor of the Moscow region, Andrei Vorobyov, headed to the site of the blast.
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