Explosion and collapse of a residential building in Belgorod: 15 people killed

photo copyrightTASS

May 12, 2024

Updated May 13, 2024

As a result of the collapse of the entrance to a residential building in Belgorod, 15 people were killed. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, part of a downed Ukrainian missile hit the house. Kyiv did not comment on what happened.

The bodies of 15 people were recovered from the rubble of a high-rise building in Belgorod, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations reported on Monday morning. Removal of the rubble and rescue work at the site have been completed.

“Specialists managed to save 17 people. Unfortunately, 15 died and were pulled out from under the rubble,” the department said.

Earlier, rescuers reported that two children were found among the dead.

The governor of the region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, wrote in his telegram channel that all residents of the damaged house were relocated.

“Some of them went to relatives, some were placed in temporary temporary detention centers in an area safe from shelling,” Gladkov said.

On Sunday morning, the regional center and surrounding areas were subjected to massive shelling from Ukraine, the governor said earlier.

According to him, one of the shells hit an apartment building, causing significant destruction.

At the same time, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that a residential building in Belgorod was damaged by fragments of one of the downed Tochka-U missiles.

Russian news agencies, citing operational services, reported that as a result of the explosion, almost the entire building was damaged – a ten-story panel building on Shchorsa Street; 16 apartments collapsed.

The site of the collapse was on an arch two stories high. According to TASS, the building has a total of 502 apartments in eight entrances.

Also, three people were killed in a new shelling of Belgorod on Sunday evening.

“The city of Belgorod has once again been subjected to massive shelling from the Ukrainian Armed Forces today. To our great grief, three civilians were killed – a seventeen-year-old girl, a woman and a man died on the spot from their injuries,” Governor Gladkov wrote in his telegram channel.

What is known about the victims of the house collapse?

Play video, “The entrance to a residential building collapsed in Belgorod”, Duration 0.5600:56 Video caption, Footage of the entrance collapse in Belgorod

The collapse of a high-rise building in Belgorod injured at least 20 people after the roof collapsed on rescuers working at the scene, according to the Russian Ministry of Health.

Governor Gladkov asked citizens not to gather near the damaged house, as it is dangerous to be there.

Emergency services do not rule out that the reinforced concrete structures of the building near the explosion site may continue to collapse.

Among the victims is a one-and-a-half-month-old child, Gladkov said.

“A one-and-a-half-month-old child with barotrauma, closed traumatic brain injury, thermal burn of the face and neck is preparing to be transported, accompanied by a resuscitator, to the Russian Children’s Clinical Hospital in Moscow,” he wrote.

A 16-year-old teenager was also hospitalized in the intensive care unit of the children’s regional clinical hospital.

What are the versions of what happened?

photo copyrightTASS

The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that on Sunday the Ukrainian Armed Forces fired at Belgorod with Tochka-U missiles and MLRS shells.

Representatives of various Russian departments expressed different versions of the reasons for the explosion and subsequent collapse of the entrance to the house.

The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that a residential building in Belgorod was damaged as a result of falling fragments of a missile shot down by Russian air defense systems.

Governor Gladkov initially spoke about a direct hit from a shell. The Investigative Committee of Russia, which opened a criminal case regarding the terrorist attack, stated the same.

The Ukrainian side did not comment on what happened.

Other versions of the collapse of the high-rise building were also expressed on social networks. Among them is an explosion from inside a house or an “unusual discharge” of aircraft ammunition from a Russian bomber, which has happened more than once in the past.

According to local authorities, sirens warning residents of Belgorod and neighboring areas about the missile threat went off several times on Sunday.

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Aggravation of the situation in the border areas

Belgorod and the region have already suffered from the missile attack carried out the day before.

According to Gladkov, as a result of the attack, more than 300 apartments in 85 apartment buildings were damaged. The day before, he reported one death and 29 wounded. The governor later clarified that 17 victims remain in hospitals.

According to Gladkov, two women are in extremely serious condition.

The Russian Ministry of Defense claims that on Sunday night over the territory of the Belgorod region, air defense systems shot down two Tochka-U operational-tactical missiles. According to the statement, drone attacks were repelled over three more regions of Russia.

Three drones were destroyed over the Bryansk region, two more – over Lipetsk. The Lipetsk Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations warned of air danger at night. Bryansk authorities did not report the drone attack.

At the end of this week, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense announced an attempt by Russian troops to break through the defense line in the north of the Kharkov region.

The Ukrainian defense ministry claims that all attacks have been repulsed. However, reports of fighting in this direction continue to arrive, and an urgent evacuation of the population has been announced in a number of settlements in the Kharkov region.

On Friday morning, many Russian and Ukrainian military sources reported an attempt by Russian troops to go on the offensive from the Belgorod region on Ukrainian border villages.

According to the head of the Kharkov regional administration, on Sunday morning Russian troops again shelled the city of Volchansk, one local resident was killed.

Oleg Sinegubov also said that on Sunday night the Russians dropped a guided bomb on Vilcha, damaging the building of a boarding house for the elderly. In addition, the day before, as a result of artillery shelling in Glubokoe, a 63-year-old man was killed, and as a result of a series of massive shelling of Volchansk from various types of weapons, a 51-year-old man was killed, five more people, including an 83-year-old woman, were wounded, and dozens of private houses were damaged.

According to Sinegubov, during the ongoing evacuation, more than four thousand people were taken from the border areas of the Kharkov region.

Earlier this week, local authorities reported fighting in several parts of the contact line, including border areas.

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, in turn, reported the transfer of reserve units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to the Volchansk direction in the Kharkov region. After this, the evacuation of the population from Volchansk was announced.