130 rescued from bombed Mariupol theater

Around 130 people have been rescued from the theater in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol that was bombed by Russia earlier this week.

A Ukrainian official on Friday updated the total number rescued so far but said hundreds more have not been accounted for, The New York Times reported. 

Survivors began to emerge from the wreckage on Thursday after Russia bombed the theater that had the word “children” written on both sides of it.

“After an awful night of not knowing, we finally have good news from Mariupol on the morning of the 22nd day of the war. The bomb shelter [the theater] was able to hold. The rubble is beginning to be cleared. People are coming out alive,” Serhiy Taruta, the former Donetsk region head, said.

Ukraine’s minister of defense, Oleksii Reznikov, told the European Parliament that 1,200 women and children were hiding out in the theater for safety. 

Russia has denied it attacked the theater, while Ukraine says Russia is committing war crimes by targeting civilians.

Russian strikes have hit residential buildings, schools and hospitals in its assault on Ukraine.