130 ‘survivors recovered’ from destroyed Mariupol theatre but ‘1,300 trapped’

However, they also stressed more than 1,300 were still trapped in the basement of the building which was hit by a huge bomb on Wednesday.

The Ukrainian Parliament tweeted: “130 people were rescued from under the rubbles of the destroyed Drama Theater in #Mariupol. Yet, more than 1,300 remain trapped in the basements.”

The bomb shelter underneath the building is believed to have withstood the explosion which is believed to have been caused by a Russian attack.

A frantic rescue operation was underway on Friday to try to save more people, including many children, who were believed to be in the basement of the Drama Theatre.

Earlier on Friday, Britain’s armed forces minister James Heappey slammed Vasily Nebenzya, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, for denying his country’s forces hit the theatre with the devastating explosion.

The top diplomat had told Sky’s US correspondent Martha Kelner: “The theatre in Mariupol was not bombed by Russia.”

He added he had seen “so many fakes” and that there was an “information war raging on a much greater scale than on the battlefield”.

But Mr Mr Heappey told Sky News: “I don’t know how the Russian ambassador sleeps at night because he sits there and stands there and says that to your correspondent and it’s clear as day what is happening in Mariupol.

“The Russians are indiscriminately using artillery and missile strikes to destroy a city that they were unable to take militarily. The resistance that remains in there is courageous.

“Mariupol is probably the worse, the one we are most concerned about, but actually there is not dissimilar things happening in Kharkiv, Sumy and other places. This a barbaric tactic.”