Sixty Sheltering In School Feared Dead After Bombing

Two people are confirmed to have died and another 60 people trapped under rubble are feared dead after Russia bombed a school in Ukraine’s Luhansk region.

- Emily Atkinson

About 90 people are said to have been sheltering the school when Vladimir Putin's forces shelled the village of Bilohorivka on Saturday afternoon, causing a fire that engulfed the building, Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai said.

Mr Gaidai said 30 people had been rescued from the smouldering debris but it is thought many remain trapped underneath. Nexta, a Belarus-based media outlet, reported that the two dead were children, though this has not been confirmed by officials.

“The fire was extinguished after nearly four hours, then the rubble was cleared, and, unfortunately, the bodies of two people were found,” Gaidai wrote in a Telegram post, adding: “Sixty people were likely to have died under the rubble of buildings.”

He said the bomb was dropped on a building where “almost the whole village was hiding” from Russian attacks.