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At least four people were killed and 25 injured when a Russian SU-34 fighter jet crashed into an apartment building in the western city of Yesk during a training flight on Monday, the Guardian reported. Russian State media and authorities.
The RIA Novosti news agency, quoting the Russian Defense Ministry, reported that the accident was caused by a fire in one of the engines.
According to the report of the ejected pilots, the cause of the crash was the ignition of one of the engines during takeoff. “At the crash site of the Su-34 in the courtyard of one of the residential neighborhoods, the aircraft’s fuel caught fire,” the ministry said in a statement to the RIA news agency.
The circumstances of the ejected pilots are unclear.
Yeysk is a port city on the shore of the Sea of Azov and is separated from the occupied Russian lands in the south Ukraine A narrow stretch of sea.
Pictures and videos following the accident showed smoke rising and blazing in the residential area. Officials said a building believed to house hundreds of people later caught fire.
Russian President Vladimir Putin The Kremlin demanded that the authorities provide all necessary assistance to the victims of the crash, the Kremlin said in a statement, adding that Putin had received reports from ministers and the head of the region about the situation.
Officials have opened an investigation into the incident, according to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Krasnodar Krai and the Military Prosecutor’s Office of the Southern Military District.
Local officials said the fire, which broke out in more than a dozen apartments in the multi-storey building, was later contained.
“The remnants of the aircraft have been extinguished. The evacuation of residents of neighboring houses has been cancelled. The fire has been contained,” the head of the Krasnodar Krai region, Veniamin Kondratiev, said on his Telegram channel, citing a statement from the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Local government security services told TASS that about 100 people had been evacuated from the building.
The Russian Emergencies Ministry told RIA that the area of the fire caused by the accident was 2,000 square meters wide.
According to the head of the affected district in Yeisk, Roman Bublik, the residents of the nine-storey building that caught fire will be provided with all the necessary support.
Earlier on Monday, an eyewitness told Russian state media TASS of the chaos that followed the accident: “A plane crashed in our city… Ambulances and firefighters are coming from all over the city, helicopters are in the air,” an eyewitness said.