Four people were killed, and another was injured in a car crash in the Russian Republic of Bashkortostan, emergency authorities said on Wednesday. The crash occurred on a highway in the Belebeevsky district when a passenger car veered off the road and overturned, according to local authorities.
One man and three women were killed, with the driver hospitalised in serious condition, reports Xinhua news agency, quoting the authorities. The driver was a 16-year-old without a driver's license, according to the Bashkortostan prosecutor's office. The office stated it would evaluate compliance with laws concerning minors and road safety, including whether parents had met their parental responsibilities.
Authorities have arrived at the scene and launched a preliminary investigation, local media reported. In a separate incident a day earlier, one person died, and two others were injured in a fire at a gunpowder plant in the Russian city of Kazan, roughly 700 km east of Moscow, local health authorities said.
Earlier, the press service of the head of Tatarstan, a Russian republic whose capital is Kazan, reported that a structure at the Kazan Gunpowder Plant partially collapsed on Tuesday evening following a fire. The incident was caused by human error. According to health authorities, one man was pronounced dead after being pulled from the rubble.
Two others were injured and hospitalised. One woman was in critical condition in the ICU but has since stabilised. Authorities in Tatarstan have launched a criminal case into a possible breach of industrial safety regulations at hazardous production facilities.
The Kazan Gunpowder Plant, which has produced gunpowder since 1788, is Russia's leading enterprise manufacturing a wide range of defence and civilian products. The plant houses one of the oldest chemical laboratories in the industry.