At least 24 people, including three children, were killed and dozens more feared dead Tuesday after an explosion at an apartment building in northern Russia that officials said was likely caused by a gas leak.
Up to 80 people were thought to be inside the nine-story building in the port city of Archangels on the White Sea when a blast ripped through it before dawn on Tuesday.
"It is difficult to say how many people died, but many did. The explosion happened when people were asleep," said Mikhail Busin, the official in charge of rescue operations, according to Interfax.
Officials said a gas leak was the likely cause of the blast, but would not rule out an attack.
Rescuers have pulled 24 bodies out of the rubble. Sixteen people were hospitalised, seven in critical condition, rescue officials said.
The explosion around 3:00 am (0000 GMT) ripped through one of the entrances to the apartment bloc. It was so powerful that the entrance, which led to 36 apartments over the building's nine floors, folded like a house of cards and left behind it a pile of rubble three stories high.
One couple who lived on the eighth floor miraculously survived the blast when their bed landed on top of the rubble, rescuers told AFP. The blast threw their son out of his bed onto the balcony, from where rescuers lifted him with a light foot fracture.
Officials said a gas leak was the likeliest cause of the blast.
Rescuers said they smelled gas when they first arrived at the scene and an official with the regional Arkhoblgaz company told television that two other gas leaks had been reported and repaired in the city in the night.
Police were searching for two men whom eyewitnesses saw carrying pipes and instruments out of the building the previous day.