Death toll jumps to 37 in gas blast

MOSCOW - The number of confirmed dead from a New Year's Eve gas explosion in a Russian apartment block jumped to 37 on Thursday as rescuers recovered more bodies from the rubble of the partially collapsed building.

Six children were among the dead, the emergency situations ministry said in a statement, and four people were still unaccounted for.

Rescuers have been braving temperatures as low as -27 C to search through mangled concrete and metal at the site in the Ural Mountains city of Magnitogorsk.