PHOTO: Residents of one more house of Bessoba region leaving their apartments

Residents of the building No.5 in Bessoba region in Karaganda are leaving their apartments, in fear of collapse of yet another building, local resident Rustam Mussin told Tengrinews.kz. “People have already moved out of 5 or 6 apartments yesterday. Cracks have appeared in the building’s basement and parts of the foundation have started distorting and lifting upwards. There is water in the basement as well. The question is where this water is coming from. It is either spring water or sewage waters, nobody knows. Yesterday the residents got together and discussed this issue. Nobody wants to risk their lives. Deputy Akim (Mayor) and Emergency Situations Department said it is up to us to decide whether to move out or stay,” Rustam said. Evacuation of the residents has not been officially announced. “This is our initiative. Everyone has their own wits. Some people are still waiting for something. We are packing our belongings and taking them away to friends and families, wherever we can spend some time. We’ll see how it goes,” Rustam said. The residents, tired of waiting for the experts’ evaluations and statements to be made, have independently checked the basement and discovered that the foundation was not in a good condition. Rustam Mussin took pictures of the cracks and said that they were running not only through the basement but also in the upper parts of the building. The building №5 that the residents are fleeing from is located across the street from the building No.7 that collapsed on April 6. It is also a 5-story building, designed, built and admitted into service by the same companies and officials that were involved with the collapsed building. Meanwhile, head of press-service of Karaganda oblast's Emergency Situations Department Kuanysh Mutallapov told Tengrinews.kz that evacuation of the residents of the buildings neighboring with the collapsed building was not compulsory. The residents had independently deciding on moving out, without waiting for the results of the inspection. Earlier Tengrinews.kz English reported that 5-story residential building No.7 of Bessoba residential complex, constructed 3 years ago as an equity construction project, collapsed in the morning of April 6. 10-15 cm crack from the foundation to the roof of the building appeared on April 1. On April 2 the residents of over 60 apartments were evacuated. By Renat Tashkinbayev