Interfax news agency reported early Tuesday morning, citing regional emergency medics, that a fire broke out at a gas station in the Dagestan region in southern Russia, killing 25 people, including three children.
Officials said the fire started in a car repair shop on the side of a highway in Dagestan’s capital Makhachkala on Monday night and caused explosions to spread to a nearby gas station.
Footage posted online showed a one-story building on fire, Reuters Television reported.
Rescue workers work to put out a fire at the scene after an explosion at a gas station in the city of Makhachkala, Russia, August 14, 2023. Russian Emergencies Ministry of the Republic of Dagestan/Post via REUTERS
“It’s like a war here,” one witness said.
The Russian Information Agency quoted the Russian Deputy Minister of Health, Vladimir Vizenko, as saying that the number of injured rose to 66, 10 of whom are in critical condition.
According to Interfax, quoting the Dagestani Ministry of Health, 13 of the wounded were children.
Tass quoted a statement from the Russian emergency service that it took firefighters more than three and a half hours to put out the blaze, which spread to an area of 600 square meters (715 square yards).
(Reporting by Maria Tsvetkova and Maxim Rodionov) Editing by Chris Reese and Muralikumar Anantharaman
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