A baby in the Russian town of Magnitogorsk somehow survived a massive apartment explosion Monday.
The incident occurred just before dawn, when the 10-story apartment exploded and collapsed from an apparent gas leak, killing at least 24 people and injuring dozens more. (RELATED: Here’s Why Russia Is Training Its People To Smile More)
Death Toll Rises to 18 as Rescuers Pull More Bodies from Rubble of Russian Gas Explosion https://t.co/9Num6EjX0v pic.twitter.com/78Bv4RjbnN
— Dhwani Online – Bharat (@DhwaniBharat) January 2, 2019
UPDATE: Gas explosion in Magnitogorsk, 4 people were killed. Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in #Magnitogorsk. : TASS. pic.twitter.com/21ZPlMVKnH
— Nikita Parshukov (@N_Parshukov) December 31, 2018
But somehow, 10-month-old Ivan Fokina was recovered after Russian rescue workers had been on the scene for almost two days. The workers, who had been working around the clock to recover any possible survivors, heard his cries sometime early Tuesday morning. They located Ivan to find him suffering from severe hypothermia — temperatures have regularly been 11 degrees below zero — but still somehow alive.
The unbelievable moment of the rescue was caught on video and can be viewed below:
Rescuers pulled this 10-month-old baby alive from the rubble of a gas explosion in a Russian apartment block which killed at least seven people.
For more on the story: https://t.co/sLTcTud6Xb pic.twitter.com/7oafwWWVz6
— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 2, 2019
Ivan’s father, who was at work at the time of the explosion, calls the rescue a “New Year’s miracle.”
The baby’s chance at survival still seems somewhat grim, as his mother and three-year-old brother were somehow able to escape the explosion without him in tow.
“I was sleeping on the couch with my older son, hugging him and the young one was sleeping in his baby bed,” Ivan’s mother, Olga Fokina, told Russian TV. “I and the older one fell down and quickly got out and I didn’t know what happened to the baby bed afterward.”
Local governor Boris Dubrovsky says baby boy’s survival can only be attributed to the fact that he was wrapped warmly in a crib at the time of the explosion.
Rescue efforts are still ongoing in the town, nearly 900 miles southeast of Moscow. At least 17 people remain missing as of Wednesday afternoon. Six individuals have been rescued from the rubble alive.