Baby rescued from rubble 35 hours after apartment collapse

KEY POINTS

• Russian rescuers on Tuesday pulled an infant boy alive from the rubble of an apartment building.
• The rescue happened 35 hours after a collapse that killed at least seven people and left dozens missing.
• A section of the 10-story building in the city of Magnitogorsk collapsed on Monday following an explosion believed to have been triggered by a natural gas leak.

This photo provided by the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry taken from tv footage shows Emergency Situations employees save a 10 month old baby at the scene of a collapsed section of an apartment building, in Magnitigorsk, a city of 400,000 about 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) southeast of Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2019.

Source: Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations photo via AP

Russian rescuers on Tuesday pulled an infant boy alive from the rubble of an apartment building, some 35 hours after a collapse that killed at least nine people and left dozens missing.

They found the baby after hearing cries amid the debris. A section of the 10-story building in the city of Magnitogorsk collapsed on Monday following an explosion believed to have been triggered by a natural gas leak.

Officials said the boy is in extremely serious condition, suffering from fractures, a head injury and hypothermia after spending 35 hours in temperatures that fell to about minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit).

More than 30 people who lived in the building have not been accounted for in the disaster in the city located 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) southeast of Moscow.

The boy's mother survived the collapse and went to a local hospital to identify him, state news agency Tass reported, citing the regional emergencies ministry. 

The regional emergency ministry said earlier Tuesday that 37 residents of the building had not been accounted for. Hopes of finding survivors were dimmed by the harsh cold.

"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.

Rescue crews had temporarily halted their search while workers tried to remove or stabilize sections of the building in danger of collapse.

Several people were hospitalized with injuries from the collapse in the city about 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) southeast of Moscow, the emergency ministry said.

In a separate holiday period disaster, seven people including a couple and their three children died in a house fire in in the town of Orsk, about 1500 kilometers (900 miles) southeast of Moscow, the Interfax news agency said. The fire early Tuesday is believed to have been caused by an electrical short-circuit, the report said.