HORROR INFERNO
At least 33 killed in mystery Russia petrol station blast as crowd watching car shop fire is hit by fuel pump fireball
THREE kids are among 33 killed after a huge mystery explosion rocked a petrol station in Russia.
At least 105 people have also been injured as the fireball tore through a crowd who had gathered to watch the raging inferno.
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The fire started at a car repair shop in the Dagestan region before engulfing the nearby Nafta 24 filling station - sending it up in flames before triggering a giant explosion.
It took firefighters more than three and a half hours to put out the blaze as it spread to an area of 600 square metres, TASS reports.
Shocking footage shows a fire raging at the petrol station before a fireball blast saw huge plumes of smoke fill the air.
Russian authorities say 33 people, including three kids, have been killed while more than 100 have been hurt.
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Local residents - some in cars - were caught up in the explosion after going closer to the fire to film.
The worse of those injured have been airlifted to Moscow for treatment.
At least 13 of those injured are children - some of who were on a bus close to the blast.
The explosion took place Monday at 9.40pm local time (6.40pm BST) on the outskirts of Makhachkala.
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The city is the capital of the impoverished Russian region Dagestan, which has sent thousands of troops to Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine.
One witness said: "It's like a war here."
The Kremlin sent an Il-76 emergency medical evacuation plane to Makhachkala on the Caspian Sea to fly the most seriously wounded to Moscow for treatment.
Russian authorities have begun a criminal investigation.
The Russian Investigative Committee said: "Investigators are establishing all the circumstances of the incident.
"Those guilty will be found."
It is the latest mystery blaze to hit Russia just days after a fire broke out at a warehouse near Moscow.
The warehouse, in the town of Ramenskoye, erupted into flames on Sunday and sent smoke billowing across the skyline.
Ammonium nitrate, a chemical commonly used in agricultural fertilizers, is highly flammable, and could explain how the blaze spread so quickly.
Videos of the fire posted online show thick black smoke and flames, seen from hundreds of metres away.
It marked the latest mystery fire to break out in the Russian capital in recent months in the wake of Vladimir Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine.
Earlier this year, 2,500 square metres went up in flames next to the Dzerzhinsky power plant in the southeastern suburbs of Moscow.
In April, another major blaze broke out in Dzerzhinsky, which was infamous during the Soviet era for producing chemical weapons.
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The out-of-control fire started in the brick warehouse of a chemicals plant in the suburb, which has a number of defence-related facilities.
Also last month, flames ripped through the Russian defence ministry just metres from the Kremlin where President Putin was holding talks.
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