(Reuters) -Two Russian missiles struck a residential area in the centre of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, on Tuesday, injuring 17 people, two of them seriously, and badly damaging homes, local officials said.
Rescue teams were sifting through piles of rubble to establish whether others were hurt. The city’s mayor described two “powerful explosions” and said at least 10 dwellings had been damaged.
Regional Police Chief Volodymyr Tymoshko told public broadcaster Suspilne that one missile hit a roadway, the other a three-storey apartment building. A fire broke out on two floors of a hospital opposite the building, but was extinguished.
Suspilne posted an online photo showing rescue teams poring carefully over piles of smashed building materials.
Kharkiv Regional Governor Oleh Synehubov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said 17 people had been injured. Twelve were in hospital, including two women who were seriously hurt.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov, also writing on Telegram, said the missiles struck “precisely where there is no military infrastructure and precisely where there are in fact residences.”
“There are at least 10 damaged buildings. Rescue teams are continuing to go through the rubble. And there is plenty of rubble.”
Kharkiv, in Ukraine’s northeast, has been a frequent target of attacks, but in the space of the nearly two-year-old conflict, the city has not fallen into Russian hands. Russian missiles hit a hotel in the city last week, injuring 11 people.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Maria Starkova; Editing by Leslie Adler and David Gregorio)
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