Explosion reported at Russian apartment building as clips show top floor devastated in blast & rescue workers search for victims

A large explosion has ripped through a residential building in the Russian city of Naberezhnye Chelny, sending emergency services scrambling to respond, with videos showing the resulting devastation posted by locals at the scene.

Reports of the blast began circulating on Monday afternoon. Several apartments across the top two floors of the five-story building appear to have been damaged, but officials have not yet released any news as to whether residents were injured. Naberezhnye Chelny is the second-largest city in the region of Tatarstan, in central Russia.

Just last month, a blast rocked the city of Noginsk, just outside Moscow, leaving two people dead and several more, including children, buried under the rubble. The explosion, which caved in at least three floors of the apartment complex, was traced to a gas leak.

In July, a similar incident, this time in the south coast resort town of Gelendzhik, killed one resident at a hotel and injured five more. Again, a gas leak was determined to have caused the explosion.

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