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Gas Pipeline Blasts in Western Moscow
A gas pipeline exploded in a western borough of Moscow on evening of November 7, causing a big fire but no casualties, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.
The violent blast occurred at about 8:30 p.m. local time (1730 GMT). A 20- meter-high flame came from the high-pressure pipe with a diameter of 1.5 meters. Firemen, rescuers and secret service men were called to the accident place and police cordoned the blast site.
Experts said the cause to the blast is possibly "malicious intent," the police at the scene was quoted as saying.
"The high-pressure gas pipeline goes underground," the experts said. "Therefore, bearing in mind the holiday, the version of a terrorist act seems to be the most probable." However, a technical reason for the blast is not ruled out, they added.
There is a heating plant and the Kievsky railroad terminal not far from the blast scene.
Teams of the Moscow gas department located a stopper to halt gas supply to the damaged pipe. The stopper is in a several-meters- deep pit filled with water. A fire engine was sent to the place to pump the water away.
Then the gas supply to the blast pipe under Moscow's Setunskaya Street was halted from the sides of the Ochakovo district and the heating plant. Firemen are waiting for the remaining gas to burn down inside the pipe, Tass cited a source in the city department for civil defense and emergencies as saying.
Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and Deputy chief of the city interior department Yuri Tishchenko arrived at the blast cite to supervise the extinguishing operation.
A commission has been formed to investigate the explosion.
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