A Russian security service building has erupted into flames as a huge plume of black smoke rises a hundred feet into the air. Footage of the building in the southern Russian Rostov region showed it engulfed in flames as the black smoke continues to pour from the scene. The Ministry of Emergency Situations has rushed to the scene, according to Russian state media outlet TASS.
Local reports suggest there were “powerful explosions” heard from the building prior to the fire. Various videos released on Telegram in the first moments of the incident appear to corrobate these claims that at least one explosion occured in the building before the fire started.
It has also been speculated that there could be an ammunition depot on the territory of the administration, though those reports have not been confirmed.
The incident occurred in the city of Rostov-on-Don just 75 miles from the Ukrainian border.
It is located just over 100 miles from the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol, Ukraine, which was relentlessly bombed by the invading forces in the middle of last year.
Local authorities said emergency services had been dispatched to the area, the RIA Novosti news outlet reported.
“The units left for [the address] Sievers, 20. The information is being specified,” the regional Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations told Tass news agency.
The news agency claimed that the regional border department of the FSB is located at the address to which they had been called.
A source earlier claimed that the fire broke out in a one-storey detached building which belongs to the FSB.
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Explosions across Russia have been growing in intensity since Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Following his announcement of the partial mobilisation of 300,000 military reservists on September 21, incidents of fires intensified further.
A fortnight ago, smoke was spotted billowing from the grounds of a Russian military flying school amid reports of a fire breaking out on the base.
The incident is said to have occurred near Krasnodar in Southern Russia.