There is still no information about possible fatalities or the condition of survivors after a theater building, which was being used as a shelter, was hit in the besieged city of Mariupol, Ukraine.
As many as 1,200 people are believed to have been sheltering in the theater when it was struck by what Ukrainian officials say was a Russian air strike early Wednesday evening.
First reports Thursday morning from the former Donetsk regional head, Sergiy Taruta, that people were emerging alive from the rubble of the building have been backed up by Liudmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian parliament’s commissioner for human rights.
“In Mariupol, the release of civilians from the rubble of the drama theatre has begun. The building withstood the impact of a high-powered air bomb and protected the lives of people hiding in the bomb shelter. Work is underway to unlock the basement,” Denisova said in a statement on Telegram.
Adults and children, she said, were coming out alive but the full extent of what had taken place remained unclear.
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