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7 dead as accident shuts top Russia hydro station

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-17 13:57

MOSCOW: Seven people were killed on Monday in an accident that halted production at Russia's largest hydro-electric power station, officials said.

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Water flooded a hall at the Sayano-Shushenskaya power station in the Siberian region of Khakassia, emergency ministry spokeswoman Irina Butenko told Reuters.

"Seven people died and 11 were injured," she said. "There is no danger to the population."

She said authorities were not ruling out the possibility that an explosion caused the accident, but Russian news agencies reported a water surge was the most likely cause.

Power production has been halted at the plant which supplies several major aluminium plants, said a spokesman for RusHydro, which owns the station.

Electricity supplies have been cut to the Khakassky and Sayansk aluminium plants, said Dmitry Kudryavtsev, the chief spokesman for the emergencies ministry in Siberia.

Plants operated by Russia's largest aluminium producer RUSAL are working as normal, said spokeswoman Vera Kurochkina.