A baby boy has been found alive after 35 hours spent in freezing cold in the rubble of a Russian apartment block that partially collapsed in an explosion, in what emergency officials are calling a miracle.
The blast, thought to have been caused by a gas leak, damaged 48 apartments in a 10-storey building in the industrial city of Magnitogorsk on Monday, killing at least nine people with 36 people still missing.
Video footage from the local emergency ministry shows a rescue worker removing the baby dressed in pink socks and putting a blanket around him before he starts running towards an ambulance.
A 10-month-old baby boy has been pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed Russian building. Source: EPA
The boy, an 11-month-old named Ivan Fokin, was in extremely serious condition, officials said, with fractures, a head injury and suffering from hypothermia after his ordeal in temperatures around minus 20 degrees Celsius.
Although Ivan's prospects for survival appeared dire, "It's a New Year's miracle," his father Yevgeny was quoted as saying by the RT satellite TV channel.
The father was at work when his wife phoned to say the building had collapsed. She escaped the rubble with their three-year-old son, Russian news reports said.
Rescue workers inspect the damaged building in Magnitogorsk, a city of 400,000 people, about 1,400 kilometers southeast of Moscow, Russia. Source: AP
Rescue worker Pyotr Gritsenko said on Russian television that baby's discovery came after one of the crew heard faint cries.
"They stopped all the equipment. He began to cry louder," but the crew couldn't find him, he said. A search dog was brought in and confirmed that someone was under the rubble, focusing the rescue effort.
"The child was saved because it was in a crib and wrapped warmly," regional governor Boris Dubrovsky was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
"Hundreds of people were waiting for the appearance of the injured child from under the rubble like a miracle. And the miracle happened...," the officials were quoted as saying by Interfax.
Many residents were asleep when a blast tore through their apartment block in Magnitogorsk, Russia. Source: AP
"Tears gathered in the eyes of the weatherbeaten rescuers."
The rescue operation, aided by powerful heaters and lights, was continuing overnight into Wednesday.
The blast tore through the building in the city of Magnitogorsk, home of one of Russia's largest steel plants, early on Monday morning, a public holiday in Russia, when many residents were asleep.
Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said on Monday that the chances of finding survivors were fading.
