2 rescued as part of 9-story building collapses in Russia

MOSCOW – Russian news reports say part of a nine-story apartment building has collapsed in the city of Izhevsk and at least two people have been pulled out of the rubble.

The cause of the Thursday afternoon collapse was not immediately determined. The reports said officials are considered an explosion of bottled gas to be the likely reason. Such accidents are widespread in Russia, where bottled gas is often used for cooking at home.

The state news agency Tass cited emergency officials as saying the two people who were rescued were hospitalized. Their conditions were not known. It was not known if others are missing in the collapse.

The city of about 625,000 people is 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) east of Moscow.