High-rise building blast speculations not confirmed

The speculations on explosion of a high-rise building collapsed in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku last month were not confirmed during the investigation, a prosecuting body executive said.

First Deputy Prosecutor-General Rustam Usubov told reporters that the culprits would be determined after experts’ assessments.

The article carried by Russian-speaking Zerkalo shortly after the accident put forth various theories on the causes of the deadly collapse. One of them suggested that the building could have been blown up by Russian terrorists, as a few days before the accident, an individual was seen at the site taking images with a video camera.

Russian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Vasiliy Istratov dismissed the allegations. Prosecutor-General Zakir Garalov also said a terrorist attack was out of the question.

Usubov said that five individuals had been detained over the incident.

25 people were killed, while seven others received injuries after a 16-story building being constructed in the Yasamal district by local Mutefekkir MTK company collapsed on August 28.

The general director of the Mutefekkir company Ali Muradov, engineer Asgar Aliyev, as well as contractors Farhad Hasanov and Gadir Salimov have detained over the accident.

Criminal proceedings have been launched against the company executives on charges of violating safety regulations during construction operations that resulted in human casualties, and construction work carried out without permission of relevant executive authorities.*