Seventh body pulled from Moscow apartments

Emergency crews pulled a seventh body from the ruins of an apartment block in northern Moscow today.

It was unclear how many people were in the building last night when it was torn apart by an explosion that collapsed five floors of homes.

Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said as many as 12 people might still be trapped in the rubble.

Russian TV said the bodies recovered so far included a mother and her eight-month-old baby and a six-year-old girl.

Shoigu, whom Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered to lead the rescue effort, said a natural gas leak was the most likely cause.

And a Moscow prosecutor said investigators had identified the source of the gas leak as an apartment on the second floor.

Russian news agencies said about 40 apartments had been destroyed.

"It was such an explosion," said 78-year-old resident Zinaida Burlakova, who sat outside at a first aid tent.

"I thought at first it was thunder, the walls were shaking. I was afraid to go outside. Then someone came to my door and started yelling, ‘Go outside!"’

Most Russian apartments use natural gas for cooking. Leaks from aging pipes and stoves are common, killing and injuring scores of people every year.

But the explosion also raised fears of a terrorist attack.

Nikolai Patrushev, the head of the Federal Security Service, the main successor to the KGB and the agency overseeing the war in Chechnya, rushed to the site with other senior officials.

Three years ago, a series of apartment block blasts that were blamed on Chechen rebels rocked Moscow and other cities, killing about 300 people.

While the main Chechen rebel forces have been severely depleted and Moscow claims the war is

all but over, rebels continue to kill Russian troops and Moscow-allied Chechen officials almost every day.

Investigators said rebels are probably shot down a troop transport helicopter on Monday, causing the biggest single Russian death toll of the conflict: 115 killed dead and 33 injured.

A top military prosecutor, Sergei Fridinsky, confirmed today that investigators found part of a Stinger anti-aircraft missile launcher near the helicopter crash site, Interfax news agency said.