A fire triggered by a gas explosion killed five people and send a further 11, including three children, to hospital in the Russian city of Engels in the Volga federal district on Saturday.
Brick walls in two apartments in the multistory apartment building were destroyed by the blast, which took place at 5 a.m. local time, investigators said.
Some 100 residents were evacuated in the morning, but were since allowed back into their homes. Some 75 were required to find temporary housing elsewhere in the city, all of them moving in with their relatives. Of the hospitalized, only one, a 24-year-old, was in serious, but not life-threatening condition with serious burns to the body.
The cause of the blast remained unclear. Investigators were studying gas appliances in the building on Saturday.
Regional authorities promised to foot hospital bills for the injured and pay for the burial of the dead. No sums were named.
In an unrelated incident, a 50-liter gas tank blew up in a shop in the Moscow region town of Stupino, also on Saturday. Five people, including an eight-year-old child, were injured, local emergency services said.
The blasts follow three similar incidents involving malfunctioning gas equipment that took place across the country since the start of the year, leaving a total of 17 dead and 39 injured.
