A section of a five-story apartment building collapsed in the Russian city of Perm on Saturday night, killing two septuagenarians and injuring four other residents, the Interfax news agency reported.
"Six people were affected by the collapse: two have died, two were treated on the spot, and two people were hospitalized in moderately grave conditions," Health Ministry spokesman Oleg Salagay told Interfax.
Both of the victims were reportedly in their twilight years — one, who died in the hospital, was born in 1938 and the other, whose body was found amid the rubble of the fallen building, was born in 1941.
Interfax reported that renovations of an office on the first floor of the building — which could have taken a toll on its load-bearing capacity — may have been to blame.
A criminal case has been launched on charges of rendering services that failed to meet safety standards. The executive director of the organization responsible for maintaining the Soviet-era brick building was detained and interrogated Sunday morning.
Residents were quickly evacuated from the building, though some have already been permitted to return home based on investigations of different sections of the building.
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