<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">A military aircraft has crashed in a residential area of the southern Russian town of Yeysk, killing at least four people and injuring up to 25.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">An apartment block was set on fire and emergency services called in. A nearby school was evacuated, reports say.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russia's defence ministry said the plane, a Su-34 fighter bomber, was on a training flight when one of its engines caught fire on Monday evening.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The pilots in the aircraft ejected before the crash, the ministry said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Footage has emerged apparently showing local residents trying to help one of the pilots lying on the ground nearby with a parachute behind him.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"According to a report from the pilots, who jettisoned from the plane, the reason for the crash was a fire in one of the engines during take-off," the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"At the point where the Su-34 came down, in the courtyard of a residential block, the plane's fuel supply caught fire."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a telegram post (in Russian), the governor of the Krasnodar territory, which Yeysk is part of, said he was on his way to the town and all regional and local fire services were battling the blaze.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Local media report the fire engulfed five floors of the multi-storey building.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A local correspondent in Yeysk told Russia's state-run TV channel Rossiya 24 that two of the building's blocks caught fire.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pupils from a nearby secondary school were successfully evacuated, according to Russia's Vesti.ru website.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Kremlin has ordered national and regional authorities to provide "all necessary assistance" to victims of the fire in the centre of Yeysk, and senior government officials have been dispatched to co-ordinate a crisis response centre.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russia's Investigative Committee said it had opened a criminal case and sent investigators to the site of the crash, without giving any reasons.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yeysk sits opposite Russian-occupied territory in southern Ukraine, separated by the Sea of Azov.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The city has been used as a major training ground for Russia's naval aviation. BBC</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>