Moscow, Russia (CNN) A baby boy was plucked alive Tuesday from the rubble of an apartment building leveled a day earlier by a suspected gas explosion in the Russian city of Magnitogorsk.

Dramatic footage released by Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry showed rescue workers pulling away debris to reveal the child -- described as "less than a year old."

The boy, covered in dust and wearing a top and pink socks, is wrapped in a blanket before being taken to a medical facility. His condition is "serious," the ministry said in a statement. At least eight people were killed after the explosion ripped through the apartment block

The collapsed building in Magnitogorsk.

The infant, who would have endured freezing temperatures, was found after one of the rescue workers heard a baby crying, the statement added. Reuters said he spent 35 hours in the elements

Rescue dogs initially probed the site, at first without discovering the boy, said the ministry. But as workers continued to dig further into the collapsed building he was discovered, pale and blinking among the debris.

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