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Crimean Authorities Try Twice, Fail to Blow Up Building

People watch an explosion to demolish a building, which was constructed illegally according a court verdict, next to the Soldier and Sailor monument in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, on Dec. 26, 2014. Pavel Rebrov / Reuters

Residents in the center of the Crimean city of Sevastopol have been evacuated after two failed demolition attempts left a 16-story building teetering at a 70 degree angle on Friday.

Construction on the building began in 2013 but was never completed. Its demolition was ordered after a court deemed its development unauthorized, the TASS news agency reported.

On Friday, two demolition attempts by Sevastopol authorities resulted in nothing more than the building becoming lopsided, forcing the authorities to shut down roads in close proximity to the building and evacuate nearby residents.

A video of the incident posted to YouTube on Friday shows the controlled explosion fail to bring down the complex, as residents laugh and one exclaims, "And it didn't even fall!"

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