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At least 14 people were killed after a Russian Sukhoi-34 fighter plane crashed into an apartment building in the western city of Yesk during a training flight on Monday, AFP reported. Russian Government officials and media.
The state news agency (Ria Novosti), citing the Russian Defense Ministry, stated that the accident was caused by a fire in one of the engines.
According to the report of the ejected pilots, the cause of the crash was the ignition of one of the engines during takeoff. “At the crash site of the Su-34 in the courtyard of one of the residential neighborhoods, the aircraft’s fuel caught fire,” the ministry said in a statement to the RIA news agency.
The circumstances of the ejected pilots are unclear.
14 bodies, including those of three children, had been lifted from the rubble as of Tuesday, according to Russian officials. Previous government media reports said at least 25 people were injured.
The tragedy claimed the lives of 14 people. I offer my sincere condolences to the families and friends of the victims, the governor of the Krasnodar Krai region, Veniamin Kondratiev, said in a statement on his Telegram channel on Tuesday.
Yeysk is a port city on the shore of the Sea of Azov and is separated from the occupied Russian lands in the south Ukraine A narrow stretch of sea.
Pictures and videos following the accident showed smoke rising and blazing in the residential area. Officials said a building believed to house hundreds of people later caught fire.
Russian President Vladimir Putin The Kremlin demanded that the authorities provide all necessary assistance to the victims of the crash, the Kremlin said in a statement, adding that Putin had received reports from ministers and the head of the region about the situation.
Officials have opened an investigation into the incident, according to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Krasnodar Krai and the Military Prosecutor’s Office of the Southern Military District.
Local officials said the fire, which broke out in more than a dozen apartments in the multi-storey building, was later contained.
Local government security services told TASS that about 100 people were evacuated from the building on Monday.
The Russian Emergencies Ministry told RIA that the area of the fire caused by the accident was 2,000 square meters wide.
According to the head of the affected district in Yeisk, Roman Bublik, the residents of the nine-storey building that caught fire will be provided with all the necessary support.
Earlier on Monday, an eyewitness told Russian state media TASS of the chaos that followed the accident: “A plane crashed in our city… Ambulances and firefighters are coming from all over the city, helicopters are in the air,” an eyewitness said.
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