Photo by: Ministry of Emergency Situations of the LPR
Photo caption,
The search and rescue operation in Lisichansk has been completed
February 3, 2024
Updated February 4, 2024
In Lisichansk in the Severodonetsk district of the Lugansk region, a search and rescue operation has been completed at the site of the collapse of a two-story bakery building after a shelling, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations reported. As a result of the incident, 28 people died, including one child. Emergency Situations Ministry employees rescued 10 people.
As Natalia Pashchenko, Minister of Health of the self-proclaimed LPR, told Interfax, among the 28 killed in the attack on Lisichansk there were 18 men, 9 women and one child.
According to Pashchenko, doctors assess the condition of the four victims of the shelling of Lisichansk as extremely serious. Six people were transferred for treatment from Lisichansk to the Lugansk Republican Clinical Hospital.
Earlier, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that its employees rescued ten people.
The search and rescue operation at the site of the collapse of the bakery building in Lisichansk continues, rescuers have dismantled about 65% of the destroyed structures, the department reported.
Leonid Pasechnik, appointed by Moscow to lead the occupied Lugansk region, declared mourning for the dead.
Initially it was reported that about 40 people could be under the rubble of the building. Judging by reports, the number of victims may rise further.
photo copyrightTASS
The Russian agencies TASS and RIA Novosti, reporting about the victims of the shelling, are based on information received from the authorities of the self-proclaimed LPR.
Ukrainian authorities have not yet commented on reports of shelling in Lisichansk.
photo copyrightTASS
Photo caption,
Photos from the site of the impact show a sign on the building: “Restaurant Adriatic.”
Lisichansk came under fire on Saturday at 14:20
The Russian-controlled Luhansk Information Center reported that Ukraine shelled the bakery using the US-supplied HIMARS high-mobility artillery missile system.
While it is unclear what this claim is based on, the BBC cannot confirm this information.
Photos from the site of the impact show a sign on the building: “Restaurant Adriatic.” In Lisichansk there really was such a restaurant serving Ukrainian cuisine on Moskovskaya Street, 167a. Local residents also write on social networks that the restaurant building came under attack.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow expects international organizations to “promptly unconditionally condemn” the attack.
Lisichansk is located near the front line; before the Russian invasion in February 2022, about 111 thousand people lived in the city.
Russia took control of Lisichansk in the summer of 2022 after intense fighting.
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