A fire at a fuel station in the southern Russian region of Dagestan late on Monday killed at least 30 people including three children, Russia’s emergency services ministry said on Tuesday.
The fire started at an auto repair shop on the roadside of a highway in the Dagestani capital Makhachkala, on Monday night and caused blasts as it spread to the nearby filling station, officials said.
“It’s like a war here,” a witness said.
Images shared by the emergency services ministry showed firefighters trying to put out a colossal blaze as flames rose high in the night sky.
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Footage posted online showed a one-storey building ablaze.
“During the rescue operation in Makhachkala, the bodies of three more victims were found,” the ministry said on Telegram. “According to the updated information, as a result of the fire at the petrol station 105 were injured, and of them, 30 died.”
Witnesses interviewed by Russian news media described an enormous blast. “I was at home, lying on the couch,” one woman said in a video interview circulated by Tass, a state-run news agency. “I don’t know how I ended up on the floor.”
Thirteen of the wounded were children, Interfax reported earlier, citing the Dagestani health ministry.
It took firefighters more than 3½ hours to put out the fire that spread into an area of 600sq m, Tass reported, citing a statement from the Russian emergency service.
A total of 65 of those injured, including 16 children, remained in hospital on Tuesday, the ministry said. Eleven people, including two children, were in a grave condition.
Families of the dead will receive one million rubles (€9,350) each, Dagestan’s authorities said, and those injured will get 200,000-400,000 rubles (€1,870-€3,740). Russian state media said some of those injured would be airlifted to Moscow for treatment.
Makhachkala is about 1,600km south of Moscow.
The Kremlin published a brief message of condolence from President Vladimir Putin, and Dagestan governor Sergei Melikov, declared a day of mourning.
Dagestan is one of the poorest parts of Russia’s majority-Muslim northern Caucasus region. It was a refuge for Islamist insurgents in past decades, but Mr Putin has pushed for an economic revitalisation of Dagestan and championed it as a destination for domestic tourism.
During a visit to Dagestan in June, Mr Putin walked on to a city square and, in a rare move for a president who still demands that many of those who meet with him quarantine first, greeted a crowd that was screaming with delight.
Dagestan has been the site of occasional protests, but there was no immediate indication that the gas station fire would exacerbate tensions. After Mr Putin declared a draft for his invasion of Ukraine last autumn, protesters in Dagestan blocked a federal highway.
On Sunday, more than 100 residents blocked a road in Dagestan to protest a prolonged disruption of the water supply to their homes, local authorities said. – Agencies