Newsday

Gas Leak Blamed for Russian Blast

MOSCOW (AP) -- An explosion tore through an apartment building in central Siberia on Wednesday, killing at least one person and injuring seven others, an emergency official said. Authorities blamed the blast on a natural gas leak.

Four other people who lived in the three-story brick structure in Biisk in the Altai region were reported missing, said Viktor Beltsov, spokesman with the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Nine of the building's 36 apartment units were destroyed and 24 were damaged in the explosion that occurred at 9:20 a.m. The building's 76 residents were evacuated, Beltsov said.

The blast was the latest in a series of recent explosions in Russian apartment buildings blamed on natural gas.

On Sunday, an explosion tore the top two floors off a five-story building in the Siberian city Novosibirsk. By Wednesday, five people were confirmed dead in the explosion, and rescue workers stopped work at the site, Beltsov said.

AP-NY-01-03-01 0331EST< 

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), January 03, 2001