The death toll from last week’s fire at an industrial plant in Russia’s Ryazan region has risen to 24, with at least another 157 people injured, officials said Monday.
The fire broke out Friday at the Elastik plant in Shilovsky district, around 155 miles southeast of Moscow. Emergency crews continued searching through debris, Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said.
State news agency RIA Novosti has reported that a gunpowder workshop at the facility caught fire and triggered an explosion. Images released by officials show some of the building reduced to rubble.
Investigators are looking into the cause of the fire.
Local authorities declared Monday a day of mourning in Ryazan.
/ AP
According to the 112 Telegram channel, which has deep sourcing in law enforcement, the blast was allegedly triggered by a rogue shell detonation.
The factory had received multiple warnings from authorities on labor safety previously, it added.
Images shared by the emergency ministry showed one of the factory halls reduced to rubble and officials said a search and rescue operation was still ongoing.
Russia’s main investigative body has opened a criminal case into violating industrial safety rules, indicating that the blast was unlikely to have been triggered by a Ukrainian attack.
Since President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine in 2022, Kyiv has retaliated with a series of sabotage attacks on Russian industry and infrastructure.
But fatal factory accidents are not uncommon in Russia, due to chronic safety violations caused by mismanagement.
In 2021, another deadly blast killed 17 people at the same plant, as a result of which some of its management received prison sentences.
contributed to this report.