Airstrike kills nine as apartment block demolished in Ukraine

Rescue workers in town held by separatist rebels say they have retrieved nine bodies

A resident passes a site of recent shelling in the town of Krasnohorivka near the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk today. Photograph: Maxim Zmeyev/Reuters

An airstrike has demolished an apartment block in eastern Ukraine, killing at least nine civilians, rescue workers have said.

Government officials denied that the strike was carried out by Ukraine’s air force.

Rescue workers in Snizhne, a town held by separatist rebels, said they have retrieved nine bodies.

Residents of the apartment block sifted through the rubble for their belongings after the attack.

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The attack adds to the steadily-growing number of civilians killed over four months of fighting as government troops seek to quell a dogged pro-Russian insurgency.

No reliable official recent death toll has been produced but many hundreds of civilians are known to have been killed to date.

Press Association