Ukraine war: Russia attacks theatre sheltering civilians, Mariupol says

Russian forces dropped a bomb on a theatre where civilians were being sheltered in the besieged city of Mariupol

Deputy Mayor Sergei Orlov told that between 1,000 and 1,200 people had sought refuge in the building. The number of casualties was still unknown.

Russia's airstrikes and shells have previously hit a maternity hospital, a church and apartment towers.

Qazet.az reports that local authorities say at least 2,400 people have been killed in Mariupol since the start of the war, although they acknowledge this is likely to be an underestimate. Many of the dead are being buried in mass graves.

An estimated 300,000 residents are trapped inside the city, where running water, electricity and gas have been cut off. Food and water supplies are running low, as Russian troops have not allowed the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Mariupol's city council said in a statement that Russian forces "deliberately and cynically destroyed" the theatre, saying a "plane dropped a bomb on a building where hundreds of peaceful Mariupol residents were hiding".

The statement said the scale of the attack was still not clear because the city continued to be shelled. A picture released by the city council, and verified by the BBC, showed smoke billowing from the building, with the façade totally collapsed.