One person was killed and two injured in a fire that broke out Thursday at a border guard building in a southern Russian region bordering Ukraine, Russian emergency services announced.
“One person was killed and two were injured,” a spokesman for the emergency services told the Russian news agency TASS.
The fire started on the first floor of the regional headquarters of the border guard of the Federal Security Service (FSB) in the city of Rostov-on-Don, capital of the Rostov region, which borders Ukraine.
The fire spread over an area of more than 800 square meters, according to TASS.
According to the 161.ru portal, before the appearance of thick smoke, the locals heard the sound of an explosion, the Spanish news agency EFE reported.
A Russian channel on the Telegram platform reported that the explosions continued as the flames spread further in the area.
According to Russian media cited by EFE, an ammunition depot is located within the FSB’s regional headquarters.
Images posted on social media showed a large cloud of black smoke billowing out of the building.
The region’s governor, Vasily Golubev, said on the Telegram social network that the fire was caused by a short circuit in the electrical cables inside the building.
The flames spread and caused the explosion of “fuel tanks” in the building, Golubev added.
Other Russian portals also reported that traffic was cut in the vicinity of the fire and that ambulances were arriving to help the victims, added EFE.
Although fires are common in Russia due to poor compliance with regulations, Ukraine has also been accused of carrying out several attacks or sabotage operations on Russian territory since the country was invaded by troops from Moscow on February 24, 2022.
Yulia Mendel, a former spokeswoman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, posted a video of the fire on Twitter calling on the Russians “not to rush to blame Ukraine,” according to the French news agency AFP.
“It could be a provocation or a political infighting. Remember that your intelligence and defense services are fighting for influence,” he added.
Source: TSF
