IRKUTSK, January 12 (RIA Novosti, Alexander Batalin) - About 3,000 people, including 720 children, were left freezing in their Siberian apartments early Thursday after a main water pipe burst, the local Emergency Situations Ministry said.
With the temperature heading toward minus 20 degrees Celsius (-4° Fahrenheit) in the day and 30 degrees in the night (-22° F), local workers are taking emergency measures return heating to the 16 five-story affected residential buildings.
A ministry spokesman said the heating would be restored by 2 p.m. GMT (10 p.m. local time).
Irkutsk, which is in southern Siberia to the north of Lake Baikal, is home to about 600,000 people.
