Nine-year-old boy survives Russian air crash: official

A nine-year-old boy and his teenage sister are among the eight people who survived the air crash in the north of Russia that killed 44 including their mother, the emergencies ministry said on Tuesday.

A nine-year-old boy and his teenage sister are among the eight people who survived the air crash in the north of Russia that killed 44 including their mother, the emergencies ministry said on Tuesday.

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Nine-year-old Anton Terekhin and his 14-year-old sister Anastasia Terekhina are being treated for their injuries in hospital in Petrozavodsk close to where the plane crashed onto a motorway just before midnight.

The brother and sister feature on a list of the eight survivors published by the Karelia branch of the emergencies ministry on its website. They are registered as residents of the Pacific island of Sakhalin.

A spokeswoman confirmed that the two were being treated in hospital but that their mother Oksana was killed in the crash. A stewardess also survived, the only one of the plane's crew who was not killed.

One Swedish citizen, a Dutch citizen and two Ukrainians were also among the dead as well as a family of four with dual Russian and American nationality, the emergencies ministry said.

The plane hit the highway at speed, burst into flames and its fragments blasted hundreds of metres (yards) apart. It is not clear how the eight injured were able to survive the impact of the crash.