Kiev - Rescue workers in Ukraine had recovered three more bodies by Friday morning from the rubble of a block of flats that collapsed in an explosion on Christmas Eve, bringing the total number of dead in the accident to 27, the Interfax news agency reported. No survivors were found during the night, when temperatures hovered around zero, officials from the Ministry for Emergency Situations said.
Two sections of the five-storey Soviet-era prefabricated building in the Black Sea resort city of Evpatioria collapsed Wednesday evening, destroying 32 flats. Damage to adjoining sections made the rest of the building uninhabitable.
Most of the dead were women and children, and one family of five was among the victims, as was a newborn baby. One of the male victims arrived by automobile and entered a section of the building only seconds before the explosion destroyed it, eyewitnesses said.
Twenty-one survivors, some with serious injuries, have so far been found. Rescue workers were still digging through building debris on Friday morning, in hopes of finding more survivors.
It was not clear how many residents of the building were still missing as Ukraine marked an official day of mourning for the victims on Friday.
A total of 62 persons were registered as living in the destroyed apartments, but some of the apartments had been rented out at the time of explosion. Police were searching for between 20 and 40 persons not yet accounted for and possibly living in an apartment affected by the blast, Fakty newspaper reported.
Hopes were however dimming as excavations were reaching the remains of the lowest building floors destroyed by the blast. Sounds of survivors trapped in the wreckage and audible on Thursday, had faded by Friday morning, Channel 5 television reported.
Preliminary investigations laid the blame for the explosion on gas canisters containing oxygen illegally stored in the basement of the block of flats.
Residents had previously complained to city authorities of an illicit repair shop operating in the basement, Sehodnia newspaper reported.
The possibility of more oxygen cannisters still buried under the rubble was slowing the search effort, as the potential of another oxygen detonation prevented the usage of welding torches to cut through reinforced concrete slabs in the debris, Sehodnia newspaper reported.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymnoshenko, on Thursday laid aside their differences to visit the accident site.
Ukrainian television showed a grim-faced Yushchenko driving from the shattered building with a somber Tymoshenko at his side. It was the first time in months, aside from state ceremonies, the pair had been seen in public together.
Yushchenko after the Evpatorioa visit announced a - by Ukrainian standards - generous compensation plan to victims including replacement of lost or damaged homes at market rates, and a flat payment of some 68,000 dollars to relatives of persons killed in the blast.
The Evpatoria blast was the worst apartment building explosion in independent Ukraine's history. The previous record was set in February 2007, when a illegally-tapped gas main exploded, killing 23 and injured dozens more building residents.
