A suspected gas explosion early Saturday in a five-storey residential building killed nine people in Russia's southeastern Sakhalin island, the local governor said, according to AFP.

The blast occurred in a brick building built in the 1980s in the village of Tymovskoye, TASS news agency reported.

"Nine people were killed, including four children," the region's governor Valery Limarenko told the Russia-24 television channel.

The emergencies ministry said preliminary information pointed to a gas leak, adding that many storeys had collapsed.

Images aired on television showed a white building with brown balconies that was partly demolished.

The emergencies ministry said 60 rescuers had been deployed.