Russia building collapse: At least three dead, dozens injured

The death toll in a gas explosion in a house in Russia’s Urals city of Magnitogorsk has grown to three, the Crisis Management Center of the Russian Emergencies Ministry’s regional branch said on Monday.

The fate of 79 people remains unknown, Deputy Governor of the Chelyabinsk Region Oleg Klimov said.

The blast rocked the high-rise building at about 4 am as people were preparing to celebrate New Year's Eve in Magnitogorsk in the country's Chelyabinsk region - but the death toll is expected to rise.

Officials say dozens are missing after the fireball resulted in seven upper floors of the building giving way.

Several hundred rescuers were scrambling to pull adults and children from the debris after the building collapsed 'like a house of cards'.

Vladimir Putin was woken to be told of the tragedy and ordered his emergencies minister Yevgeny Zinichev to the Urals city.

Citing the emergencies ministry, RIA news agency said 110 people lived in the building, and 48 apartments had been damaged.

Ten including one child were rescued from the carnage after the tenth to the third storeys crumbled. A total of 16 were evacuated.

Law enforcement sources discounted terrorism as a cause and are focusing on a gas leak.

Two Il-76 and Sukhoi Superjet 100 are ready to fly from Moscow pick up the injured, said reports.

The governor of Chelyabinsk region Boris Dubrovsky arrived in Magnitogorsk.

'Vladimir Putin was immediately informed about the tragedy,' said a Kremlin spokesman.

Putin has ordered Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova to do everything in her powers to assist those injured and bereaved families.

The tragedy comes as Russians prepared to celebrate the most important evening of the country's calendar - when by tradition Grandfather Frost, or Santa, visits children.

Monday is a public holiday before the New Year celebrations in Russia.

All those killed were adults, an official said, adding that three injured, including one child, were taken to the hospital.

With 79 people reported missing, in a grim message the head doctor of the third city hospital in Magnitogorsk, Mikhail Scherbakov, told reporters: 'The critical time for medical help has ended.

'So we do not think that anyone alive will now be brought to us.'

Ministry of Health official Maria Khvorostova said doctors were treating 12 people injured in the building collapse.

'Four injured were hospitalized, among them one child, born in 2005,' she said.

'The rest did not need the hospitalization. The condition of all 12 people is assessed as satisfactory.'