There was a gas pipeline explosion in the Novonikolayevsky district of the Volgograd region near a railway. The train traffic was stopped due to the incident, Itar-Tass reported. The regional department of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations told Itar-Tass that the “report about the Petrovsk-Novopskovsk gas pipeline explosion with following fire came at 22:30, Moscow time on Thursday. The gas supply was shut down immediately.” “The explosion occurred 300 meters from the railway tracks at a section between the Duplyatka and Kasarka stations. The rail traffic was stopped, including two trains: Volgograd-Moscow and St. Petersburg-Volgograd,” the ministry officials specified. There were no immediate reports about casualties. Four tanks of the Novonikolayevsk fire-fighting unit were working at the incident site. A response group of the Emergency Situations Ministry's department for the Volgograd region was dispatched to the scene. Meanwhile, railway men sent a special fire-fighting train to the gas pipeline explosion site. Itar-Tass was told at the Russian Railways Company (RZD) that according to specified information, there was a rupture of the gas pipeline at 22:16, Moscow time, near the Duplyatka station of the Volga Railway 30 meters form the tracks. Gas ignited as a result of the incident. “The train traffic in this area was suspended,” according to an RZD official. He stressed that there were no injured in the incident.
