A staircase collapsed in a Russian school town today, killing at least five children and injuring at least four others, Russia's Emergency Services Ministry said.
"Eleven children have been taken out of the rubble, five of them are dead, four are injured and 800 people were evacuated," a ministry spokeswoman in the southeastern Urals region of Orenburg said.
The accident was caused by the collapse of three flights of stairs connecting the second and third floor of a school building, "presumably because of maintenance works on the roof of the school building," she said.
Interfax news agency said prosecutors had opened a criminal investigation into the accident for possible violations of building safety regulations.
The accident spread debris over a wide area at the Belyayevskaya school in the Orenburg region, which catered for children aged between seven and 17.
Many Russian schools are decaying after decades of neglect, although the Kremlin has pledged to renovate buildings in poor condition.
Reuters