Death toll following gas explosion in apartment building in Russia’s Nizhnevartovsk rises to 10

The number of victims following a gas explosion in an apartment building in Russia’s city of Nizhnevartovsk has risen to 10, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reports, citing the Investigative Committee.

Earlier today, another body was discovered by the rescuers among the debris of the five-storey apartment building, which had collapsed following a gas explosion.

The explosion in the five-storey building in Nizhnevartovsk occurred on 4 December. The Investigative Committee initiated a criminal case under the article on death through negligence. Russia’s Emergency Ministry said that the cause of the explosion was depressurisation of a gas cylinder. Several cylinders were stored in the apartment in which the explosion had happened, the ministry added.