Six killed in gas explosion in the Caucasus (Roundup)

Jan 14, 2008, 17:46 GMT

Moscow - A series of gas explosions that have gutted Russian apartment buildings in the new year has left 14 people dead and dozens homeless.

On Monday, six died when a natural gas blast tore through an apartment building in the Russian Caucasus.

Another seven were injured with one in critical condition after a parallel catastrophe in Russia's Samara region.

More people were still feared trapped beneath the rubble in the town of Yessentuki, at the base of the Caucasus mountains, where an early morning explosion blew out the entire middle section of the five-storey cement building.

State television showed rescue workers, hoisted by cranes, balancing on the edge of the gaping hole in the Khrushchev-era apartment bloc.

'Sifting through the four destroyed apartments, rescue workers have found the bodies of six victims,' news agency Interfax quoted a Stavropol regional official as saying.

Among the dead in one family's flat were a grandmother and four- month-old baby.

While the buildings of the period were known for their shoddy construction, city administration officials said the apartment built in 1976 was in good condition and would be patched up.

Four families' homes collapsed as the explosion ripped through the 48-apartment building, and the 60 people evacuated have been housed in the nearby state-electricity company offices, regional officials said.

The explosion, which did not spark a fire, was apparently caused by a gas leak. 'One of the tenants might have used the stove's oven for heating the apartment,' rescue workers said.

Later on Monday, at least seven people were injured with one in a critical condition after the gas blast in Russia's Samara region.

The blast destroyed the top two floors of a five-storey apartment building in city of Novokuibyshevsk.

Last week, a natural gas blast destroyed 12 apartments in Kazan, 800 kilometres east of Moscow, leaving eight dead and one woman hospitalized.

Disregard for safety regulations and poor infrastructure in Russia has resulted in frequent gas explosions in apartment buildings and state facilities.

In other accidents since the beginning of the year, 23 people were left in the cold after a January 3 household gas explosion in an apartment in the city of Voronezh, on Russia's border with Ukraine.

Three people were injured and 17 were hospitalized in a similar tragedy in Elektrostal, 58 kilometres outside Moscow, on January 4.