The explosion of a gas bottle killed three people last night in an 18-storey block of flats in the Riscani district of Chisinau. Three more people are missing, the authorities have created a crisis cell.

The deflagration was so strong that there was nothing left of four apartments. Pieces of walls, windows, furniture and home appliances were thrown to tens of meters.

All the Chisinau fire brigade was mobilized on the spot: 16 truckers and 100 rescuers. An IGSU employee was injured after a concrete slab fell over him. Another nine people, occupants of the block, needed medical help.

Three people, including one child, died, and ten needed medical care after a strong explosion occurred in the block where they lived.

It all happened last night around 23 o'clock on Moscow's avenue. The preliminary version shows that the deflagration occurred due to a gas cylinder.

"It is supposed that the epicenter of the explosion took place on the 16th floor. We have a deposition in this sense." A lady said that coming from work activated the electric power and the explosion took place, also in that area were found and the remains of the cylinder gas", said Alexandru Pânzari, head of the IGP.

From the list of died people are a 77 years old man who died on the hospital bed. Underneath the ruins were found the inanimate bodies of a woman and a child.

Among the injured is a young woman whose apartment was deflagrated.

Two boys walking in the park near the block and hearing the bang, went to see what had happened. They climbed to the 16th floor where the explosion took place, and helped the woman out of the rubble.

"The explosion was on the 16th floor. We took the girl who had burns and it was all dirty with blood." She said a gas bottle exploded in her apartment, "That's what she said?" "Yes, she did. and she lost her consciousness, we tried to help her, we talked to her as we stepped down stairs, 24 or 25. She was alone in the apartment? "" No. Fire and police came, "he said the boys who helped the woman.

Some tenants in the neighboring apartments were picked with wounds. They were helped by the witnesses until the ambulance arrived.

"From the 15th floor I pulled a woman out of the ruins together with the witnesses who were there. I carried her to the ambulance and everything was fine."

"- I got the first one - Wounded - the first wounded who was a lady I was so stressed I could not imagine which floor I just walked in without it without order. it was burnt, burned dripping from blood into blood. "

"A bang and the stairs fell into my head. In bed I was looking at the film and I was still alive."

"Everything broke, all the doors were destroyed, the walls seemed to be whole."

"In the apartment we are preparing for bed and at this moment in five minutes we took our papers, took some clothes and left the apartment because it was an exceptional state. the fire and salvation came up and helped those who were under the rubble. "

With the wounds a firefighter was chosen, over which a concrete slab fell:

"Careful on the part you hold him in. We go, put it all on your rope.

The explosion was so strong that at least four apartments were completely destroyed. Following the deflagration, cars parked next to the block were also affected:

"During the explosion, I was in my car. The car's rear window was shattered and completely destroyed, and the car moved from place to place, flown concrete, food, nothing was understood."

"They jumped bottles and I did not notice where he came from, but he probably jumped out of it. We went out, we scared and we forgot that the building might fall but that's not what it is."

Deputy Mayor Nistor Grozavu declared at an emergency meeting at the Pretura Râşcani that the block was not connected to the gas network.

"They have kitchens with electric cookers, because in the past buildings higher than 30 meters or let me say, higher than 9 levels, up to 10, natural gas supply is not allowed", said Nistor Grozavu, deputy mayor of the Capital.

PUBLIKA.MD recalls that in recent years there have been several explosions in housing blocks caused by leaking gas from defective or badly connected gas bottles. Following deflagrations, dozens of people have been traumatized in the hospital, and some have died due to imprudence.

The most resounding case occurred in May 2015, in a fourth-floor apartment in Cantemir. The explosion was so strong that the windows and personal belongings of the tenants were thrown at a distance of about 25 meters from the block.

Moreover, the ceiling of the deflagration house collapsed, and a fire broke out, which rapidly spread to the 3rd and 5th floors. As a result, three people arrived at the hospital and one of them died shortly. Following the incident, ten apartments were severely damaged.

In October 2014, a powerful explosion occurred in a five-storey building in Orhei. A 49-year-old man died after being crushed by concrete slabs, and three other planes were chosen with various traumas. At the same time, approximately 25 apartments were damaged and the tenants were accommodated in a hotel in the city.

And in 2007, in Soroca, after a mass explosion, produced in a residential building, four people died and three others were injured. Among the deceased was a firefighter who participated in the liquidation of the consequences.

The most striking case caused by a gas cylinder explosion occurred on January 9, 2016, at the "La Soacra" café in the Central Square in the capital. Then, following that explosion, 13 people were injured, and four died.