Rescuers work in freezing conditions Russia

Hundreds of rescue workers raced bitterly cold weather in Russia’s Ural Mountains region yesterday as they searched for survivors in the hulking concrete blocks from a partially collapsed apartment building where at least four people died.

The nation’s top investigative agency, the Investigative Committee, said an explosion triggered by a gas leak apparently caused the pre-dawn collapse in the industrial city of Magnitogorsk. The New Year’s Eve accident shocked Russians and marred the mood on the nation’s most beloved holiday.

Authorities people were said five hospitalised with injuries and 35 others remained unaccounted for. Russian officials acknowledged that the odds of finding anyone alive in the debris looked increasingly slim given weather.

Nearly 1400 rescue workers searched in temperatures of -17 degrees Celsius. the extreme

AP Emergency Situations employees working at the scene of a collapsed apartment building in Magnitogorsk, a city of 400,000 people, about 1400km southeast of Moscow.