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Russian rescuers abandon gas blast
RESCUERS abandoned their search yesterday for survivors of a gas explosion that killed 58 people at an apartment block. Authorities said a pipe may have been deliberately disconnected before the blast. Hundreds of emergency workers had been picking through debris since the blast in the White Sea port of Arkhangelsk in the early hours of Tuesday and had found 24 people alive. ?We finished the (rescue) work today at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT),? Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu said. ?In all we have 58 dead. At present nine people are still in hospital?
Attention turned to the likely cause of the explosion.
?The main working theory remains a domestic gas explosion,? Itar-Tass news agency quoted local prosecutor Yuri Shperling as saying.
?We do not rule out that the gas pipe may have had a fault or was deliberately disconnected ? this is all being checked.?
Prosecutors had said on Wednesday a valve was missing from a gas pipe at the site and police said they were looking for two men seen removing pipes and tools from an apartment block just before the explosion.
Disasters in Russia?s poorly maintained buildings are common and newly re-elected President Vladimir Putin has promised to improve domestic safety.
Yesterday eight people were killed when their house burned down in the Altai region in Siberia. A gas blast last month in a Siberian cafe killed 18 and on Sunday a fire after a suspected electrical fault gutted the historic Manege building near Moscow?s Kremlin.
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