AT LEAST six people have died and 27 are injured after a fighter jet slammed into a block of flats in Russia sparking a huge inferno.
Footage shows a massive fireball erupting from the apartment block in the Russian city of Yeysk after a Su-34 supersonic plane smashed into it.
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Russian news reports claim at least six people have died and 27 were injured in the disaster which took place in the Krasnodar Krai region, over 600 miles south of Moscow.
Several people are still missing, sparking fears the death toll will rise further in the coming hours.
The crash site is just 45 miles southeast of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, close to the Sea of Azov.
Local reports said five floors of the nine-story building were on fire, the upper floors had collapsed and about 45 apartments were damaged in the blast.
The blaze spread over 2,000 square metres (21,500 square feet), according to Russian state-run agencies.
Around 500 people normally live in the Soviet-era apartment building, local officials have said.
Pictures show one of the two jet pilots floating down to earth on his parachute right beside the flames.
Oksana, who lives nearby, said the whole area had been cordoned off.
“There could be an explosion,” she said. “Everything is burning inside. There is smoke.”
The mum said she had been stuck in traffic when she heard the news.
“I’m in shock obviously,” she said. “My child was alone at home. We already used to go to sleep with fear every day – Mariupol is just across from us.”
The aircraft crashed while climbing for a training flight from the military airfield of the Southern Military District in Yeysk, the Russian defence ministry said.
My child was alone at home. We already used to go to sleep with fear every day
Oksana
It added that the crash resulted from an engine failure on takeoff and both crew members bailed out safely.
“At the site of the crash of the Sukhoi Su-34 in the courtyard of one of the residential area, the aircraft’s fuel caught fire,” the ministry said.
A state of emergency has been declared by the governor of Krasnodar Krai.
The investigative committee, which looks into serious crimes, said it had opened a criminal investigation into the crash.
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Governor Veniamin Kondratyev told reporters at the scene his administration was “providing maximum assistance” to residents and promised to “figure out whether the house would be restored, or we will build new apartments”.
He earlier said that “all fire and rescue units in the region are working on extinguishing the fire”.
“The governor ordered the whereabouts of each resident to be established,” the local administration said on the messaging app Telegram.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered “all necessary assistance be given to casualties from the military plane incident,” a Kremlin source told state-run news agency TASS.
The Su-34 is a twin-seat, all-weather supersonic medium-range fighter bomber.
The plane is designed primarily for hitting ground and naval targets.
Russian military aircraft have been involved in several deadly accidents since the start of the war in Ukraine.
In June, four were killed when a Russian plane crashed en route to Ukraine.
Terrifying footage showed the plane smashing to earth in Ryazan, southeast of Moscow.
Yeysk is located on the Sea of Azov which separates southern Ukraine and southern Russia.
It is home to some 85,000 people.
Tariq Tahir
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