7 Dead, 9 Missing in Russian Gunpowder Factory Blast

File Photo - Smoke rising from the site of blasts at an explosives plant in the town of Dzerzhinsk. (Reuters)
File Photo - Smoke rising from the site of blasts at an explosives plant in the town of Dzerzhinsk. (Reuters)
TT

7 Dead, 9 Missing in Russian Gunpowder Factory Blast

File Photo - Smoke rising from the site of blasts at an explosives plant in the town of Dzerzhinsk. (Reuters)
File Photo - Smoke rising from the site of blasts at an explosives plant in the town of Dzerzhinsk. (Reuters)

An explosion and fire at a gunpowder factory in Russia on Friday killed at least seven people, while nine remain missing, emergency officials said.

The Emergency Situations Ministry said the explosion hit the Elastik factory in the Ryazan region, about 270 kilometers (about 167 miles) southeast of Moscow.

Russian news reports said that all those missing are believed dead. One person was hospitalized with serious injuries, according to local officials.

The ministry said 170 emergency workers and 50 vehicles were involved in dealing with the fire, reported The Associated Press.

Officials are looking at violations of safety procedures or a short circuit among possible causes.



One Killed, 11 Wounded by Russian Missile Strike on Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih

 A Ukrainian AS-90 self-propelled artillery vehicle fires towards Russian positions at the frontline on Pokrovsk direction, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP)
A Ukrainian AS-90 self-propelled artillery vehicle fires towards Russian positions at the frontline on Pokrovsk direction, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP)
TT

One Killed, 11 Wounded by Russian Missile Strike on Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih

 A Ukrainian AS-90 self-propelled artillery vehicle fires towards Russian positions at the frontline on Pokrovsk direction, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP)
A Ukrainian AS-90 self-propelled artillery vehicle fires towards Russian positions at the frontline on Pokrovsk direction, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP)

One person was killed and 11 were wounded by a ballistic missile strike on an apartment block in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, local officials said on Tuesday, and Kyiv condemned the Christmas eve attack.

"The monsters landed a direct hit on a four-storey residential block with 32 apartments," the head of the city's military administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, wrote on Telegram.

One man whose body had been pulled from under the rubble could not be revived by medics, regional governor Serhiy Lysak said.

"While other countries of the world are celebrating Christmas, Ukrainians are continuing to suffer from endless Russian attacks," Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets wrote on Telegram.

Governor Lysak posted photographs of rescuers trawling through a large pile of rubble, recovering a person covered in dust and loading them into an ambulance.

"There may still be people under the rubble," he wrote shortly before 18:00 local time (1600 GMT), more than two hours after the strike.

Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is a steelmaking city with a pre-war population of more than 600,000.

Its southern outskirts lie about 40 miles (65 km) from the nearest Russian-occupied territory, and it has regularly been the target of Russian missile attacks throughout the war.

Russia says it does not deliberately target civilians, although thousands have been killed since Moscow launched its invasion in 2022.