13 December 2008, 23:34
In Azerbaijan, three persons perish in explosion of dwelling house
As a result of an explosion today morning in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, in a five-floor apartment house, three persons were lost. The press-service of the Azerbaijani MIA reports that several persons with wounds and burns, including a child, were hospitalized from the place of the incident.
The explosion occurred in an apartment of House No. 34, located in Nakhichevanskaya Street of Nizami District in Baku. As a result, the fourth and fifth floors of the block were destroyed, and the first three floors settled down. The rescue operation is still underway in the venue.
On the fact of the explosion, the Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan has initiated a criminal case, as Khikmet Mamedguliev, head of the department of the Prosecutor's Office, told the "News-Azerbaijan" Agency. As he said, the true reasons of the explosion will become clear after examinations.
"Currently, we have two preliminary versions of the powerful explosion. The first one is related to leakage of household gas in one of the apartments of the fifth floor, while the second one deals with the repair works, which were in progress on the fourth floor of the house," Mr Mamedguliev said. According to his story, it is probable that repair workers failed to observe safety rules when installing gas pipes in the apartment. This version will be checked up.
Aziz Seidov, Public Prosecutor of the city of Baku, has emphasized that an act of terrorism could not be the reason of the explosion. "The interrogated witnesses and victims assert that there was a leak of household gas. There are also no material evidences, which could indicate a terror act," the Russian News Service quotes him as saying.
