As people in the city of Magnitogorsk recover from a New Year Eve disaster, three people were killed after a minibus exploded in the Urals area. Although the two incidents appear to be unrelated, a report said the people in the minibus were terrorists who planned a tower block collapse.
On Karl Marx Avenue in Magnitogorsk, a minibus exploded around 1 a.m. local time on Jan. 1, less than two days after a tower block collapse and no more than two miles away from the ruins of the collapsed apartments.
According to the Chelyabinsk region authority, the explosion was due to a malfunction of gas equipment and two gas canisters were found inside the vehicle, reported Interfax.
In a video posted by RT, footage shows the Gazel car is engulfed in fire. While bangs coming from the direction of the burning vehicle could be explained as a result of firecrackers in the minibus, the noise also resembled gunfire.
According to a report published on Znak.com, a Urals news website, the tower block collapse was suspected to be a terrorist attack.
Citing an unnamed source, the article said that “three terrorists were killed at night on Jan. 1 in a Gazel vehicle. They tried to shoot back. One of them ran away, police are searching for him.”
The source also claimed that traces of explosives were found in the ruins of the collapsed building. The explosives were allegedly stored in an apartment rented by terrorists who planned to attack a local shopping center.
Immediately after publishing the report, the website was blocked for several hours, according to the Daily Mail.
Officials have refrained from commenting on the claims.
According to an article from the Investigation Committee of the Russian Federation (IC), the agency is still investigating the cause of the tower block collapse and no traces of explosives have been found.
Emergency officers inspect rubble as they take part in a rescue operation after a gas explosion rocked a residential building in Russia's Urals city of Magnitogorsk on Dec. 31, 2018. STR/AFP/Getty Images
Tower Block Collapse
On Dec. 31, a section of a 10-story tower block collapsed in the early morning during the public holiday. Many residents were sleeping at the time of the incident.
The incident claimed the lives of 21 people, including two children. 14 of those killed had been identified and over 20 people are still unaccounted for, reported TASS, a Russian News Agency.
The partially collapsed building is also situated on Karl Marx Avenue in Magnitogorsk. Similar to the Gazel car incident, the IC said the main cause of the tower block collapse was a gas leak. However, the agency launched a criminal investigation soon after the incident occurred, which it says will consider all possible versions of what happened. The IC has sent around 100 detectives to the city.
A view of a damaged residential building after it was hit by a gas explosion in Russia's Urals city of Magnitogorsk on Jan. 1, 2019.
On Jan. 1, an 11-month-old baby was found alive in the rubble after spending 35 hours in the freezing cold, including a night of temperatures reaching -17 degrees Fahrenheit. Sustaining head injury, leg fractures, and frostbite, the baby was barely hanging on to life when it was removed from the debris by rescuers, according to the Epoch Times.
A special plane from Russia’s Federal Medical and Biological Agency was used to transport the baby to Moscow, where the baby, named Ivan Fokin, will receive treatment, according to TASS.
