Russian city mourns blast victims of nuclear site blast

The city where Russia’s main nuclear research facility is based announced a day of mourning Sunday for five staff killed during a missile test that caused elevated radiation levels. Russia has said that five nuclear agency staff were killed by a blast during testing of a nuclear-powered missile at an Arctic military facility on Thursday.

The closed city of Sarov in the Nizhny Novgorod region, about 500 kilometres (300 miles) east of Moscow, announced 24 hours of mourning from 1 pm (1000 GMT) Sunday with flags lowered and entertainment events cancelled, RIA Novosti state news agency reported.

The decree by the city chief said the five killed were staff of the Russian Federal Nuclear Centre. The Rosatom nuclear agency said memorial services would be held Monday.