(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-15 22:16

KIEV - Emergency workers were on Monday searching for eight people still missing after a gas explosion flattened part of an apartment building in central Ukraine, as the confirmed death toll climbed to 14.

A sniffer dog walks on the debris of an apartment building that partially collapsed on Saturday after a gas explosion in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk October 14, 2007. [Agencies]

"We will, of course, carry on with the rescue operation until the very last," a spokesman for the Emergencies Ministry said by telephone. Seventeen people remained in hospital.

Several explosions in succession struck a residential area of the city of Dnipropetrovsk on Saturday, reducing part of a 10-storey apartment building to rubble. Adjacent sections of the building and neighboring homes were damaged.

The city's gas service said the explosion was caused by a sudden surge of supplies to the area. Local authorities have agreed to re-house all residents of the building suffering the most damage.