Russians 'Bomb Art School Where 400 People Sheltering'

An art school where about 400 people had taken refuge in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol has been bombed by the Russian military, according to officials in the area.

Local authorities said yesterday that the school building was destroyed and people may be trapped under the rubble. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Russian forces had on Wednesday bombed a theatre in Mariupol where civilians took shelter. Local officials said 130 people were rescued but many more could remain under the debris.

Mariupol, a strategic port on the Azov Sea, has been encircled by Russian troops, cut off from energy, food and water supplies and faced a relentless bombardment. Local authorities have said the siege has killed at least 2,300 people and some of them had to be buried in mass graves.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the siege of Mariupol will go down in history for what he said were war crimes committed by Russian troops.

“To do this to a peaceful city, what the occupiers did, is a terror that will be remembered for centuries to come,” Mr. Zelensky said in a video address to the nation.