Explosion in high-rise building in Kharkiv: People reported dead and injured

As a result of the explosion in a multi-storey residential building in Kharkiv, fatalities and casualties were reported. 

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov stated this on Telegram, Ukrinform reports.

"As a result of an explosion of unknown origin, we have fatalities and injured people in a high-rise building in the Saltivskyi district," he wrote.

Details are being clarified, Terekhov added.

Shortly afterward, he reported that the body of a second person killed was found at the site of the explosion.

Search and rescue operations are ongoing, Terekhov noted.

As Yevhen Vasylenko, spokesperson for the Kharkiv regional office of the State Emergency Service, told Suspilne, those killed in the explosion, the causes of which are being established, are a man and a woman. Their bodies are being extricated from under the rubble.

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According to him, the explosion occurred in an apartment on the fifth floor of a 16-story building on Valentynivska Street at about 01:30.

As a result of the blast, floor slabs between three levels were damaged.

Photo: SES (illustrative)