The governor of Russia's Astrakhan region has urged people not to panic after its main city, close to a huge gas chemical complex that was attacked by Ukrainian drones this week, was enveloped in a cloud of natural gas.
Governor Igor Babushkin insisted the gas that people could smell was the result of work to restart production at the plant near the southern city of Astrakhan, which has a population of about 475,000 people.
"Dear citizens, this morning the city was covered by a cloud of natural gas, which has a specific smell that appears after processing," he wrote on Telegram.
"Specialists are carrying out restoration work and have started to launch production this morning. Now the start-up and adjustment process is underway, including the launch of flare-burning."
He did not make clear which production was being restarted.
Babushkin said some gas flares had been extinguished when the plant was shut down after the attack, and restarting them required a release of gas that was then "ignited, like on a household gas stove".
He said the weather service was predicting the gas cloud would move away from the city.
"Natural gas is not hazardous to health in open spaces - in the near future the state of the atmospheric air will normalise," he said.
"I want to warn the residents of Astrakhan, in the coming days before the plant returns to its scheduled operating mode, such situations are possible. Do not panic!"
