Moscow: A gas explosion killed at least six people in an apartment block in southern Russia today, a regional emergency services spokeswoman said.

Rescuers said four apartments in Zheleznovodsk, a spa resort 1,500 km south of Moscow at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains, were destroyed in the blast, the news agency TASS reported.

Nearly 60 people had to be evacuated from their homes. It was cold and it appears an elderly 70-year old man was using natural gas from his stove burners to warm the apartment.

Then there was an explosion, Russian television quoted emergency worker Igor Oder as saying. Television pictures showed one section of the top floor of a concrete apartment building blown out.

Gas explosions have become commonplace in Russia's Soviet-era apartment buildings. Last week eight people were killed in a suspected gas explosion in an apartment building in Kazan.

Source : UNI