Zaporizhzhia residents put on alert after overnight strikes kill 17

Lviv, Ukraine, Oct 9 EFE).- The emergency services in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia on Sunday warned city residents to stay on alert over the possibility of fresh Russian strikes and warned them to not approach the area where overnight Russian missile strikes have killed at least 17 people.

Zaporizhzhia’s acting mayor Anatolii Kurtiev confirmed the death toll in a Telegram post after as many as 10 missiles were reported to have struck the city, the state-backed Ukrinform news agency said.

“Last night’s rocket attack on Zaporizhzhia damaged apartment buildings and streets of the private households sector of the city. According to initial reports, five private buildings were destroyed and about 40 damaged,” Kurtiev wrote.

Earlier, the head of Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, Oleksandr Starukh, had reported the attack on Telegram, warning that Russian forces “continue to terrorize the city.”

Kurtiev said that emergency services were working to restore utilities in the affected blocks, where a fire had also broken out as a result of the strikes.

The state emergency services has warned the population over the possibility of fresh strikes and urged them to avoid going near the affected area, UKrinform said citing another Telegram post.

As per authorities, the “massive rocket attack” took place at around 2 am, and caused major damage to a high-rise building, with the first to eighth floor being completely destroyed.

The city was still recovering from a missile strike on Thursday, which had killed 19 people according to the latest casualty count.

At the time, the Russian forces had used the S-300 missiles, which struck the city center. EFE

int-lab/ia