A woman died and 13 people suffered gas poisoning in a Moscow region bank after a malfunctioning fire-extinguishing system began pumping carbon dioxide into the office, officials said.
About 75 people were evacuated from the building housing the Bank Rossii office in the town of Podolsk, the Emergency Situations Ministry said, adding that 10 victims remained hospitalized late Wednesday, Interfax reported.
A firefighting expert told Interfax that the fire-extinguishing system installed in the bank was similar to the one that malfunctioned on the nuclear submarine Nerpa in the Sea of Japan in November 2008, killing 20. Russia handed over the submarine to India on a 10-year lease last week, news reports said.
(MT)
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