The chairman of the Russian Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, has ordered to open a criminal probe into a floor collapse in a nine-storey apartment building in the town of Shakhty, located in the southern Russian Rostov Region, Svetlana Petrenko, the official spokesperson for the committee, said on Monday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th January, 2019) The chairman of the Russian Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, has ordered to open a criminal probe into a floor collapse in a nine-storey apartment building in the town of Shakhty, located in the southern Russian Rostov Region, Svetlana Petrenko, the official spokesperson for the committee, said on Monday.
Earlier in the day, the 8th and the 9th floors of the building partially collapsed, supposedly due to a gas blast. According to the latest estimates of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, one person was killed, and seven rescued. Two people are in hospital, with their health condition assessed as stable. The fate of four people is still unknown.
"The chairman of the Russian Investigative Committee has tasked the Central Investigative Department of the North Caucasian Federal District to open ... a criminal case into floor collapse in a section of a multi-storey building in the town of Shakhty in the Rostov Region," Petrenko said.
Vasily Golubev, the governor of the Rostov Region, said the collapse had been triggered by a household gas blast.
"This was a household gas blast, this is absolutely certain. [It] allegedly [happened] in a flat, where we are currently investigating. A woman has felt a gas leak and was going to address a relevant [service]," Golubev said, as broadcast by Rossiya 24 tv channel.
He added that the family of the woman who was killed in the incident would receive 1 million rubles ($14,915) in compensation.
"We will certainly provide aid to the family of the victim, and all those affected will certainly receive financial assistance from the regional budget and the local budget of Shakhty. I think that ... already tomorrow all the necessary documents will be signed to provide 1 million rubles in aid to the family of the victim," Golubev said, stressing that the authorities were "traditionally" reviewing documents related to support for families of incident victims "very quickly."
The incident caused damage to four flats.
It is currently unknown whether there is a risk of further collapse.
