Moscow - At least 53 people were killed
by a fire in a shopping mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo,
Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said on Monday.
The fire, one of the deadliest in Russia since the breakup
of the Soviet Union, swept through the upper floors of the mall
where a cinema complex and children's play area were located.
Russian emergency services said the fire, which started on
Sunday afternoon, had now been extinguished but that rescuers
were struggling to reach the upper floors because the roof of
the building had collapsed.
More than a dozen people were still unaccounted for. People
posted appeals on social media seeking news of their relatives
or friends, and authorities set up a centre in a school near the
mall to deal with inquiries from people seeking missing family
members.
Video footage from inside the mall after the fire broke out
showed a group of people in a smoke-filled staircase trying to
smash a fire exit door, which was jammed.
Russia's Channel One television station reported that some
people had jumped from upper windows of the mall to escape the
flames.
Members of the emergency ministry fire service try to put out the fire at the Zimnyaya Vishnya shopping mall in Kemerovo. Picture: Xinhua/Sputnik
Russian state investigators said four people had been
detained over the fire, including the owners and lessees of
outlets inside the shopping mall. The Investigative Committee,
which handles major crimes, said it was trying to bring in the
mall's principal owner for questioning.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, elected to a new term last
weekend, spoke by telephone with the governor of the Kemerovo
region and with the head of the Emergencies Ministry.
The Russian president "expressed his deep condolences to the
relatives and loved ones of those who died," the Kremlin said in
a statement.