At least 30 people have been killed in an explosion and fire at a petrol station in the southern Russian city of Dagestan.
The explosion occurred at 21:40 local time (18:40 GMT) on Monday in the regional capital of Makhachkala on the Caspian Sea coast.
It is still unclear what caused the accident, which left more than 100 people injured, some of them in critical condition.
Images show a large fire lighting up the night sky and several fire engines at the scene.
A state of emergency was introduced in Dagestan’s Komtorkalinsky district, according to regional head Sergei Melikov.
About 260 emergency workers have been deployed, while the most seriously injured have been airlifted to Moscow, the Emergencies Ministry said.
JEE News has quoted doctors as saying that three children are among the dead.
It added that the fire had spread over an area of 600 square meters (6,460 square feet) and there was a risk of further explosions.
JEE News quoted an unnamed witness as saying the fire broke out in a car park in front of a petrol station.
“After the explosion, everything fell on our heads, we couldn’t see anything anymore,” said the eyewitness.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said the fire started during maintenance work on the cars and was followed by an “explosion”.
The committee said that a criminal case has been instituted to determine the circumstances leading to the incident.
The Republic of Dagestan is one of the 83 constituent parts of the Russian Federation and is the southernmost part of the country. Makhachkala is about 1,600 km (1,000 mi) from Moscow.