Acting Mykolaiv Mayor Yuriy Hranaturov has not confirmed claims that an explosion that ripped through an apartment building in the city might have been a terrorist attack.
“The terrorist act theory is 90%, if not to say 100%, untrue. It was most likely an explosion caused by a domestic gas fault. Law enforcement agencies have every reason to believe that this was the case,” Hranaturov told the ICTV television station.
“This incident is nowhere near a terrorist attack,” he said.
The acting mayor, however, said that it was a “very serious tragedy”.
“Eighteen apartments were almost destroyed. The walls of one section fell like dominoes from the 10th to the 1st floor,” he said.
So far, only one person has been confirmed as dead, he said.
Sixty-five people, or 25 families, living in this house have already been placed in a comfortable hotel. Other tenants have refused to leave.
