Large flames and thick plumes of acrid smoke were seen rising into the air over St Petersburg today.
Local sources wrote of the deafening blast on Twitter, asking whether the flames were caused by a regular fire or another type of explosion.
One wrote: “Is it a fire in St. Petersburg or what? I have never seen or heard such a sound. HUGE flame […]”
A clip of the blaze showed flames flowing into a mushroom cloud in the air above what appears to be a forest area in Vsevolozhsk, a residential area around 24km (15 miles) east of St Petersburg.
State media has claimed that the explosion was caused by an erupting gas pipeline that runs through the Leningrad region.
[Might just be an accident. Probably, even. But with Vladimir Putin targeting Ukraine’s energy systems with his missile attacks, it might be something else. — Ed]
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