25 killed in Russia's petrol station fire

MOSCOW - A fire erupted at a gas station in Russia's southernmost Republic of Dagestan, killing 25 people, Russian officials said Tuesday.

Some 66 individuals have been injured, 10 of them in serious condition, Russia's deputy Health Minister Vladimir Fisenko was quoted by RIA news agency as saying.

The Russian emergency service said in a statement that it took firefighters more than three and a half hours to put out the fire, which had grown to a size of 600 square meters.

The fire started on Monday night at an auto repair shop on the roadside of a highway in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, and caused blasts spreading to a nearby gas station. XINHUA