A Russian military jet crashed into the courtyard of a large apartment building in southern Russia during a training mission on Monday, killing at least four people, emergency officials said.
The Su-34 warplane crashed in Yeysk, a port town east of Crimea, military officials told Russian news outlets. The Russian defense ministry said the jet was on a training flight when one of its engines caught fire and it plunged into a residential area about 25 miles across the Sea of Azov from Ukraine.
The Russian emergency ministry wrote on the messaging app Telegram that four people had died and six were missing while at least 20 were injured. The head of the ministry, Aleksandr Kurenkov, had flown to the site, the agency said.
Anna Minkova, the deputy governor of the Krasnodar region, wrote on Telegram that at least three children were injured, some seriously.
The fire engulfed several floors at once, the regional governor, Veniamin Kondratiev, said on Telegram. He said initial reports indicated that 17 apartments had been damaged, but added later that the extent of the damage was still being assessed.
The Russian Investigative Committee, the country’s main federal investigation agency, said forensic specialists had been dispatched to the scene.
“Military investigators are establishing the circumstances and causes of the incident,” the committee wrote on Telegram.
In May, an Su-34 crashed through the roof of a two-story home in Chernihiv, in northern Ukraine. The residents, who were in the basement, survived. The pilot also survived after ejecting.
