A fire and an explosion at a gas station killed at least 35 people in southern Russia, the authorities said Tuesday, in a disaster that struck one of the country’s poorest regions.
There were no immediate reports of foul play or of a connection to the war in Ukraine.
Russian state media said a fire at a nearby building on Monday evening caused an explosion at the gas station in Makhachkala, the capital of the Dagestan region, on the Caspian Sea and near the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains.
Witnesses interviewed by the Russian news media described an enormous blast.
“I was at home, lying on the couch,” one woman said in a video interview circulated by Tass, a state-run news agency.
Persons:
Vladimir V, Putin, Sergei Melikov
Organizations:
Tass
Locations:
Russia, Ukraine, Russian, Makhachkala, Dagestan, Caucasus