Explosion Hits Russian Apartments--Gas leak thought to be cause

MOSCOW (AP) -- An explosion ripped through a five-story apartment building Russia's Far East on Monday night, killing two people and destroying 10 apartments, emergency officials said. The cause of the blast in Khabarovsk, 3,800 miles east of Moscow, was unclear. The Interfax news agency quoted police as saying a gas leak was likely to blame, though they did not rule out a terrorist attack. Gas explosions are common in aging Russian apartment buildings.

The explosion hit at about 5:40 a.m. Tuesday and ignited a fire that blazed for three hours, a duty officer at the Emergency Situations Ministry said on condition of anonymity. At least two people were killed and an unknown number of others were injured. Residents were evacuated.

Russians are tense over a series of overnight bombings of apartment buildings in Moscow and two other cities last year that killed about 300 sleeping people. The bombings were blamed on Chechen rebels, though no one claimed responsibility.

Russian officials warned recently that Chechens were planning terrorist acts in Russian cities because of federal troops' progress in the Chechnya war.

http://www.newsday.com/ap/rnmpne1r.htm

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 07, 2000

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-- (kb8umw@yahoo.com), February 07, 2000.