Eleven killed, at least 24 missing in Ukraine blast

Twenty-one residents have been pulled out alive from the shattered block in the Black Sea resort of Yevpatoria in the Crimea peninsula, Emergencies Ministry spokesman Ihor Krol told Reuters, adding that at least 24 people were missing.

 

Emergencies Minister Volodymyr Shandra earlier told Ukraine's Channel 5 television that between 40 and 80 people could be under the rubble.

 

The cause of the explosion on Wednesday night had not been established yet but it was "quite possible that there had been containers with oxygen or acetylene stored in the building", said the spokesman.

 

"There can still be between 40 and 80 people under the rubble," Emergencies Minister Volodymyr Shandra told Ukraine's Channel 5 television.

 

Ukrainian state television pictures showed military rescuers searching for survivors among the mounds of concrete and glass. A middle section of the building was missing, and apartments on either side had their walls torn down and were exposed.

 

Casualties caused by gas blasts in often crumbling apartment buildings are common occurrences in former Soviet republics, particularly in winter when residents use more heating.

 

Yevpatoria is a popular summer resort town in Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, lying some 60 kilometers (40 miles) west of the regional capital Simferopol. Crimea has a Russian-speaking majority population.

 

One such blast in October 2007 killed 15 residents in Ukraine's central city of Dnipropetrovsk.Â