NHL Star Evgeni Malkin Donates 4Mln Roubles to Russian High-Rise Blast Victims

Evgeni Malkin's first club was Metallurg in Magnitogorsk, the city where a gas explosion partially destroyed an apartment block and killed 39 people on New Year's Eve.

Pittsburgh Penguins centre Evgeni Malkin has donated 4 million roubles ($60,000) to the fund opened for victims of the deadly explosion and subsequent building collapse in the city of Magnitogorsk in the southern Urals, which took place on New Year's Eve.

According to the press service of the Magnitogorsk-based Metallurg hockey club, Pittsburgh Penguins players are also set to make generous donations, as well as Metallurg's senior management and coaching staff.

Evgeny Malkin, 32, who was born in Magnitogorsk and played for the local team in 2003-2006 before joining the Penguins, said that he had lived on the same street in his native city where the ill-fated block is located.

The 10-storey apartment block partially collapsed on 31 December, ostensibly due to a gas explosion, resulting in 39 deaths.