37 confirmed dead in Russian building collapse

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00:57

The death toll from a New Year's Eve gas explosion that caused a Russian apartment block to partially collapse has risen to 37, the TASS news agency reported citing an official from Russia's emergency situations ministry.

Six children were among the dead, while four people are still missing.

The blast, initially thought to have been caused by a gas leak, damaged 48 apartments in a 10-storey building in Magnitogorsk at around 6:00 a.m. local time on December 31.

Six people have been rescued from the rubble, including an 11-month-old baby who was buried under the collapsed building for nearly 36 hours in sub-zero temperatures.

"A New Year's miracle has occurred!" Russia's emergency situations ministry said in a statement.

Authorities said the little boy had been reunited with his mother, who also survived the ordeal.

Rescue workers at a residential complex which partially collapsed after a gas leak explosion in Magnitogorsk, Russia, December 31, 2018. /VCG Photo

Emergency services posted a video of rescuers slowly moving apart concrete panels and pulling out the baby, who can be seen blinking, before running with him wrapped in a blanket to an ambulance.

"The rescuers heard crying," Chelyabinsk regional governor Boris Dubrovsky wrote on the Telegram messenger service.

"The baby was saved by being in a cradle and warmly wrapped up."

The little boy survived temperatures that fell overnight to around -27 degrees Celsius, the TASS news agency reported.

He was in an "extremely serious" condition, with severe frostbite to his limbs, a head injury and multiple leg fractures, the health ministry said.

Rescuers at the site where a gas explosion partially destroyed a residential building in Magnitogorsk, Russia, December 31, 2018. /VCG Photo

The Soviet-era apartment block in Magnitogorsk, a city best known for one of Russia's largest steel plants, had been home to about 1,100 people. Residents left homeless are being housed in a nearby school.

Investigators have opened a criminal probe into the accident, which the FSB security service said was the result of a gas explosion.

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

Source(s): AFP ,Reuters