Officials are optimistic there are survivors after a theater serving as a shelter for hundreds was bombed Wednesday in Mariupol.
A shelter in the basement of the building, now covered in rubble, appears to be intact, indicating “most of” the people in the building could be alive, Ukrainian parliament member Dmytro Gurin said, according to the BBC.
RUSSIAN FORCES BOMBED MARIUPOL THEATER WITH HUNDREDS OF CIVILIANS, CITY COUNCIL SAYS
“It looks like most of them have survived and are OK,” Gurin said, although continued shelling and artillery from Russian forces make the rescue mission “really difficult.”
Sergei Taruta, former Donetsk region head, said Thursday in a Facebook post that the rubble was being cleared from the bomb shelter and that people are coming out alive.
Petro Andrushchenko, an adviser to the city’s mayor, also said many may have survived Wednesday’s blast.
“The bomb shelter held. Now the rubble is being cleared. There are survivors. We don’t know about the (number of) victims yet,” Andrushchenko told Reuters.
The exact number of people in the building at the time of the bombing is unknown, but one official said it could be more than 1,000.
A satellite photo obtained by the BBC from above the building also shows the word “children” written in Russian on the ground in the front and back of the building, seemingly to ward off any attacks.
The building turned into rubble was the city’s largest shelter in size and number and critically needed, as Taruta reports 80% of the city’s housing has been destroyed.
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Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denied Russia’s involvement in the bombings, commenting that Russian forces “don’t bomb towns and cities,” as reported by CBS.
