Rescue workers searched for survivors Thursday in the ruins of a theatre blown apart by a Russian airstrike in the besieged city of Mariupol, while scores of Ukrainians across the country were killed in ferocious urban attacks on a school, a hostel and other sites.
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KYIV, UKRAINE -- Survivors began to emerge Thursday as authorities worked to rescue hundreds of civilians trapped in the basement of a theatre blasted by Russian airstrikes in the besieged city of Mariupol, while ferocious Russian bombardment killed dozens in a northern city over the past day, the local governor said.
The strikes the previous evening had left a large section of the grand, 3-three storey theatre building in the center of Mariupol collapsed in a smoking ruin, according to photos released by the city council. Inside, hundreds of men, women and children -- up to 1,000 according to some officials -- had taken shelter in the basement, seeking safety amid Russia's strangulating 3-week siege of the strategic southern port city.
Rescuers worked to clearing rubble that had blocked the entrance to the basement, despite new strikes reported elsewhere in the city Thursday. Miraculously, the shelter stood firm, officials said. "The building withstood the impact of a high-powered air bomb and protected the lives of people hiding in the bomb shelter," Ukraine's ombudswoman Ludmyla Denisova said on the Telegram messaging app Thursday.
She and Ukrainian parliament member Sergiy Taruta said some survivors had emerged. "People are coming out alive," Taruta wrote on Facebook, though he did not say how many.
It was not known if there were injuries or deaths among those inside. Another lawmaker, Lesia Vasylenko, who was in London in a delegation visiting Parliament Thursday, said there were reports of injuries but no deaths.
At least as recently as Monday, huge white letters on the pavement in front of and behind the theatre spelled out "CHILDREN" in Russian to alert warplanes of those inside, according to images released by the Maxar space technology company. The Russian defense ministry denied bombing the theatre or anywhere else in Mariupol on Wednesday.
The strike against the theatre was part of a furious bombardment of civilian targets in multiple cities over past day. Also struck in Mariupol on Wednesday was a municipal pool where pregnant women and women with children were taking shelter, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional administration. Hours later, there was no word on casualties in that strike.
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