Two more bodies have been recovered from under the rubble of a multi-story building in Belgorod, the Emergencies Ministry has said
A memorial to the victims of the Ukrainian strike on a residential building in Belgorod. © Sputnik / Aleksey Nikolskyi
The death toll from an apartment block collapse caused by a Ukrainian strike on the Russian city of Belgorod on Sunday has risen to 17 people, the Emergencies Ministry has said.
Two more bodies have been recovered from the rubble, the ministry wrote on Telegram on Tuesday, adding that the victims are a male and a female.
The capital of Belgorod Region on the border with Ukraine came under heavy shelling from Kiev’s forces on May 12.
The Russian Defense Ministry said a Tochka-U tactical missile system, as well as Olkha and Czech-supplied RM-70 Vampire multiple rocket launchers, had been used to carry out a “terrorist attack on residential areas” in the city.
According to the ministry, air defenses were able to intercept a dozen incoming projectiles, but fragments of one of the downed Tochka-U missiles struck a residential building.
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It caused the collapse of a whole section of a ten-story apartment block in Belgorod’s Kharkovskaya Mountain residential area, trapping residents under the rubble. On Sunday, rescuers found 15 bodies on site, while 17 more people were hospitalized with various injuries. Three more people were killed by Ukrainian shelling elsewhere in the city on the same day, according to governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
