Astana residential building's basement explodes

Something has exploded twice in the basement of a #29/1 Shakarim street 9-storey residential building in Astana, Tengrinews.kz reports. The accident happened around 6 a.m. According to the residents, they heard two explosions. One person was injured. He was taken to a hospital by an ambulance. “I woke up from the sound of the first explosion. I live on the 8th floor. I looked out of the window and heard the second explosion. The building face decoration parted from the wall and tumbled down, windows got shattered and the basement metal door got blown outwards. There were 4-5 cars parked next to the building; they were all damaged,” the building’s resident Anuar Nuretdinov said. He said that the shockwave was so strong that metal fittings flew out of the basement windows and damaged the cars. After the explosion the buildings residents started waking up their neighbors and evacuating from the building on their own. According to the residents, gas supply pipes were attached to the building not long ago. Police is now questioning the people. Representatives of the city administration are evaluating the damages. Head of the life support department Vladimir Tabushnyuk is also working at the accident site. The causes of the accident and the damages are being investigated, he said. “The causes will be defined and we will take measures after that,” he said. Tabushnyuk noted that apartments of only one of the building's entrances received the gas supply not long ago. “People had been living without a gas supply for a long time and AstanaGasService made a pilot gas supply project for the building,” he said adding that the building did not take any heavily damage in the explosion. “None of the apartments were not damaged. The building is functioning properly. All the equipment, power supply, water and gas supply are operating normally,” he said. Part of the laminate flooring got lifted from the floor in one first-storey apartments, he added. The building’s framework was not damaged only some finishing fell off in places. By Renat Tashkinbayev