A fire breaks out at a Russian thermal power plant as a huge plume of black smoke fills the sky

Thick clouds of black smoke have been recorded billowing from an oil and gas power plant in Perm, central Russia, about 1,500 km east of Moscow

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Moment of explosion in a Russian thermal power plant

Thick plumes of black smoke were spotted rising from a Russian thermal power plant today.

Images taken outside Permskaya CHPP-9, an oil and gas power plant in Perm, central Russia, show the thick dark clouds in the sky above the facility.

The cause of the fire is not yet known.

Local residents shared videos on social media showing a tunnel of black, acrid smoke rising into the sky above the city.

The smoke was caused by a fire that broke out on the roof of the building - the largest thermal power plant in Perm - which is about 1,500 km (930 miles) east of Moscow.< /p>

Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said there were no fatalities, but three people were injured as a result of the fire, one of whom is in critical condition.

Eyewitnesses recalled seeing flames erupt in one of the workshops as the gas "burst all the way to the ceiling" and caused a "huge heat wave".

Black smoke rises from a gas-fired power plant in Perm, Russia (

Picture:

@LXSummer1/Twitter)

Surveillance footage from inside the workshop shows what appears to be a devastating gas explosion ripping the roof off the factory, BAZA reports.

Five hundred people were reportedly evacuated from the building.

In a first statement, the ministry said it had been informed of a fire on the roof of a workshop at around 12:38 p.m. local time (07:38 GMT).

There were 79 employees and 23 equipment at the scene of the fire when it broke out.