An explosion at a gas station in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan has killed 35 people and left 115 injured, according to Russia’s Health Ministry.
The blast occurred on Monday night, Aug. 14, on the outskirts of Makhachkala, the region’s capital, after a fire started at a nearby car repair shop and quickly spread to the gas station.
Of those injured, 65 people, including 16 children, remain hospitalized as of midday Tuesday. Eleven of the injured, including two children, are reported to be in grave condition. Three children were among those who died.
Dagestan’s authorities have declared Tuesday a day of mourning and have pledged to provide financial assistance to the victims and their families.
Families of the deceased will each receive 1 million rubles (about $10,000), while the injured will receive between 200,000 and 400,000 rubles (about $2,000-$4,000), according to Dagestan’s authorities.
Some of the injured will be airlifted to Moscow, located roughly 990 mile north of Makhachkala, for treatment.
Authorities have launched a criminal investigation into the incident, which is the deadliest in Russia since a fire at a defense research facility in Tver, a city, 100 miles north of Moscow, killed 22 people and injured a dozen more in April 2022.
In a separate incident on Monday night, a blast at an oil mine in the Khanty-Mansiysk region of western Siberia killed two people and wounded five others.
The Dagestan explosion follows a series of incidents in Russia, including an explosion at a factory north of Moscow earlier this month that killed one person and injured 84 others.
