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 A witness described the shelling to Reuters as enough to knock the
paint off his house.
The deaths follow the separatists' rejection of more peace talks and
as fighting surged to its most intense in months. The United Nations
said on Friday 262 had been killed in the previous nine days.
Government-held Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, lies on a coastal
route from the Russian border to Crimea, which was annexed by Russia
from Ukraine last March.
The city council said rockets fired by rebels from long-range GRAD
missile systems struck a multi-story building and caused fires to
break out.
Oleksander Turchynov, secretary of Ukraine's national defense
council, described the incident as "another bloody crime against
humanity committed by the Russian military and the bands of
terrorists under their complete control," in an online statement.
 The attack started in the early morning, 76-year-old pensioner
Leonid Vasilenko, who lives in the eastern suburbs of Mariupol, said
by telephone.
"The walls were shaking, the window frames were shaking, paint
started to crumble off the house. I hid in the basement. What else
can you do? I took the dog and the cat. In the basement you could
hear the earth tremble," he said.
The interior ministry said 15 people had been killed and 76 injured.
Separatists denied responsibility for the attack, news agency
Interfax reported.
Despite international calls for a ceasefire, rebel leader Alexander
Zakharchenko vowed on Friday his forces would push on with a new
offensive, as the UN said the conflict, which began in east Ukraine
more than nine months ago, was now in its "most deadly period" since
a peace deal was agreed last September.
The Kiev military reported "high-intensity" rebel attacks on
government positions.
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"Illegal armed groups are trying to widen the boundaries of
controlled territories and correct the demarcation line to their
advantage," spokesman Andriy Lysenko said in a televised briefing.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said last week Russia had 9,000
troops inside Ukraine and called on Moscow to withdraw them, blaming
it for an armed aggression. Moscow denies sending forces and weapons
to east Ukraine, despite what the West says is irrefutable proof.
On Friday Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed "criminal orders"
by Ukrainian leaders on Friday for the surge in the conflict, which
has killed over 5,000 people.
Ukraine says its troops are holding the line against the separatists
after suffering a symbolic and morale-sapping setback last week when
they withdrew from the main terminal at the airport in Donetsk, the
biggest city in the east.
(Additional reporting by Lina Kushch; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
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