An explosion of unknown origin in a high-rise residential building in Kharkiv early Saturday left at least two people dead and others injured, city officials said.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said in a Telegram post that the blast occurred at about 1:30 a.m. in an apartment on the fifth floor of a 16-story building on Valentynivska Street in the city’s Saltivskyi district. Officials were still determining the cause.
Rescue workers were searching through the rubble, and Terekhov later reported that a second body had been found at the site.
Yevhen Vasylenko, a spokesperson for the Kharkiv regional office of Ukraine’s State Emergency Service told Suspilne that the two confirmed fatalities include a man and a woman. Their bodies were being recovered, and additional casualties were being treated.
The blast damaged floor slabs between three levels of the building, authorities said, and search and rescue operations were ongoing.