Russia gas complex fire kills 3, company says

A fire at a petrochemical site in Russia's far eastern Amur region killed three people, including two Chinese citizens, the company said Tuesday.

Amur GKhK said the dead were two citizens of China and one Russian citizen. It said 24 people were taken to hospital with injuries of varying seriousness, while 122 others had light injuries that did not require hospitalisation.

The blaze broke out at the Amur Gas Chemical Complex, a remote joint venture between Russia's Sibur and the China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, known as Sinopec.

Amur GKhK said search and rescue operations were continuing. It said emergency services were working to extinguish the main fire and carry out the controlled burning of residual industrial gas.

The company said the complex's main installations were not damaged because the fire broke out in an auxiliary technical area of the facility.