A suspected gas explosion ripped through a Russian apartment block early on Sunday, injuring at least eight people, Russian news agencies reported. The agencies quoted emergency workers as saying no people were killed by the blast, which occurred shortly after 4 a.m. (0100 GMT), destroying internal walls and blowing out windows in the southern Moscow block. Emergency workers evacuated residents from the building into a fleet of buses. Gas explosions are common in Russia, but any explosion will rattle the nerves of Russians braced for attacks aimed at disrupting presidential elections next Sunday. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Emergency workers carry a stretcher with a burnt body of a victim of an explosion in a small cafe in the city of Chita, southern Siberia, some 4,700 km (2,930 miles) east of Moscow, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2004. (AP Photo)