Ukrainian apartment blast

The final death toll from a Christmas Eve explosion in a five-story apartment building in southern Ukraine has increased to 27 people, including three children.Twenty-one people were rescued from the remains of the building, located in the Black Sea resort town of Yevpatoria.

Rescue workers were still combing through the site Friday, but are expected to finish their work soon, according to Ukraine’s Emergency Situations Ministry.Government officials said oxygen canisters stored in the basement of the building are the most probable cause of the blasts, which reduced the apartment complex to rubble.

Television footage showed rescuers trying to free people buried underneath fallen debris, while others scrabbled through wires, construction rods and boulders.Another, who lived opposite the apartment block, told: “We heard a terrible bang. We though our balcony crashed because of the way the windows vibrated. But when I went onto the balcony I saw smoke from the other side.”