MOSCOW, Jan 14 (Reuters) - A gas explosion killed five people at an apartment block in southern Russia on Monday, a regional emergency services spokeswoman said.

Rescuers said four apartments in Zheleznovodsk, a spa resort 1,500 km (930 miles) south of Moscow at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains, were destroyed in the blast, news agency TASS reported. Nearly 60 people were forced from their homes.

"It is likely that there are still four trapped in the rubble," TASS quoted an emergency services worker saying.

The spokeswoman in Stavropol said emergency workers had rescued eight people so far.

Gas explosions have become commonplace in Russia's Soviet-era apartment buildings. Last week eight people were killed in a suspected gas explosion in an apartment building in Kazan. (reporting by Chris Baldwin, editing by Matthew Tostevin)

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