Fifty five people were injured when gas exploded in a cottage house during a wedding in the southern Russian city of Vladikavkaz on Saturday, North Ossetian deputy Health Minister, Taimuraz Revazov said.
According to the preliminary information, the blast was caused by the depressurization of a gas cylinder.
“The number of the injured has increased to 55, including 20 people who are in critical condition,” Revazov said, adding that medical ventilators supported the lives of the four people.
Some of the injured had received a 100 percent body burn, a source in the local hospital said.
Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry Il-76 plane with mobile medical units on board arrived in Vladikavkaz at 21:43 Moscow time (17:43 GMT) to evacuate the wounded to Moscow.