Eight Dead, Scores Missing in Russia Power Plant Blast

Eight people were killed while another 54 are reported missing after an accident shocked Russia’s top hydro electric facility in south Siberia early on Monday, say media reports citing Russian prosecutors.

“Preliminary reports said eight people, working in the turbine room, were killed, 10 injured and 54 are missing,” Vladimir Markin, spokesman for the top Investigation Committee was quoted as saying by Ria Novosti.

A local radio station, however, quoted a local disaster official as saying that 68 people were still unaccounted for at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power plant.

The plant’s second hydroelectric generating unit was destroyed and the turbine room severely damaged when an oil transformer exploded as workers carried out repairs. The blast damaged the plant’s water ducts, flooding the turbine room and halting production at the plant.

Later reports said at least two other generating units had also been damaged.

The station – located on the Yenisei River flowing from Mongolia to the Arctic – had 10 operating generating units before the accident.