TASHKENT, February 10 (RIA Novosti) – Six people were killed and seven injured on Monday in a natural gas explosion in the central Uzbek city of Navoiy, local media reported.
The blast was caused by a gas leak, an occurrence that has become quite common in the Central Asian republic amid an unusually cold winter.
Many Uzbek homes have no central heating, and locals switch on their gas ovens to maximum heat to warm up their apartments.
Gas deliveries are sometimes interrupted due to unstable pressure in distribution networks. When deliveries resume, gas starts accumulating in a house, creating a threat of gas poisoning or an explosion.
Last week, a family of four died of gas poisoning and another family suffered severe burns in an explosion in two unrelated incidents in southern Uzbekistan.
