Blast in Crimean city of Kerch reportedly leaves at least 10 dead:
By the Crimea Desk of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
Eyewitnesses say an explosion in the Crimean city of Kerch has caused casualties, and Russian news reports say that 10 people may have been killed.
The blast occurred on October 17 at an educational institution in the city on the eastern end of the peninsula that Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.
State-run Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted an unnamed emergency services worker as saying that it was a gas explosion at a polytechnic college, and that 10 people were killed and about 40 injured.
TASS, also state-run, quoted an unnamed law enforcement official as saying that about 70 people were injured and an unknown number of them had died.
TASS also quoted medical workers as saying that 18 people had been hospitalized and that they were expecting more injured to be brought in.
Eyewitnesses said ambulances and other emergency vehicles rushed to the site after the blast, which some reports said took place in a cafeteria.
Kerch is the site of the western end of a newly built bridge linking Russia to Crimea, which it took over by force after Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was pushed from power by pro-European protests.
Russia sent troops to the peninsula, secured key buildings there, and staged a referendum denounced as illegitimate by Ukraine, the United States, and a total of at least 100 countries. (w/RIA Novosti, TASS, Interfax)
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