Fire at a large Russian petrochemicals factory kills two people

A?large fire broke in a petrochemicals plant in the Tatarstan region of Russia on Tuesday.

Sibur, the company that owns Nizhnekamskneftekhim, has put the death toll as two. Twenty people have been hospitalised.

The state news agency TASS reported that three people were killed, six were missing, and more than 70 others were injured.

Sibur reported that a gas mixture had exploded at an 'equipment producing synthetic rubber. The company said that it was unclear what caused the gas to ignite.

Sibur stated that the major production units at the 'plant, which also produces plastics, are unaffected by the incident and continue to run normally.

The company stated that the fire had been contained and there was no danger of it spreading. Specialists were also checking the air quality and had not detected any threat to the local environment or residents.

The Russian aviation regulator briefly placed restrictions on the airport at?Nizhnekamsk (about?620 miles (1,050 km) east from Moscow).

Radmir Belyaev said that several apartment blocks had their windows blown out.

Images on social media that were not confirmed showed a large plume of smoke rising into the sky from the complex. (Reporting and writing by Maxim Rodionov, Lucy Papachristou and Mark Trevelyan; Editing and rewriting by Andrew Osborn, William Maclean and Mark Trevelyan)

(source: Reuters)