"At present, debris removal is underway. Earlier, the governor instructed the immediate commencement of debris clearing as soon as the search and rescue operation concluded," the regional information policy department was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

The mishap reportedly occurred on Thursday.

Two entrances of a five-story gas-powered building in Nizhny Tagil, a city located in Russia's Sverdlovsk Oblast, caved in due to an explosion of a gas-air mixture, the news agency reported.

A state of emergency was declared following the mishap.

The investigative committee has launched a criminal case concerning the provision of services or work that did not meet safety requirements, the news agency reported.