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Russia’s Perm mourns as blaze toll reaches 112
“It was monstrous, young people died there, the future of Russia,” said Sergei Prokofiev, an 18 year-old student and a stepbrother of one of the victims. Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Russian Prosecutor General’s Investigative Committee, told Interfax news agency on Sunday that a criminal case has been opened into the cause of the blaze.
“This is not a premeditated murder, but this does not lessen the gravity of the crime,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday. In addition to the dead, roughly 130 people are suffering from smoke inhalation and extensive burns. About 80 of the victims have been flown to hospitals in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Chelyabinsk.
An all-day memorial service is also under way at the central cathedral in the industrial city of Perm, which is located 1,150 kilometers (720 miles) northeast of Moscow.
A Reuters photographer in Perm, 1,150 kilometers (720 miles) northeast of Moscow, saw groups of distraught people visit a morgue to identify victims. Others, some weeping or smoking, stared blankly at the lists of the dead. According to the Emergencies Ministry, the oldest fatality was 44 years old and the youngest just 21.
Hundreds of red carnations and candles have been placed outside the club. Friday’s fire was Russia’s most deadly in decades, emergency officials said, and the worst nightclub fire worldwide since nearly 200 people died at a party in Buenos Aires in 2004.
“This is not a premeditated murder, but this does not lessen the gravity of the crime,” Medvedev said. Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev told Medvedev there was no evidence of a bomb. Russian prosecutors said five employees, including the club’s owner and founders, had been detained in on suspicion of breaching fire regulations and manslaughter.
A Perm resident watching firemen pull burned people out of the club said corruption was to blame. “As always in Russia, there is irresponsibility and bribery,” said the local, who only gave his first name, Oleg.
“We need to find the fire inspector who gave permission to this club and why he allowed it,” he said.
Firework show
Video footage of the disaster showed a merry crowd celebrating when a presenter suddenly announced: “Ladies and gentlemen, we are on fire. Leave the hall. Line up in a queue.” Then the camera shows fire roaring along the wicker-covered ceiling of the 500 square meter (5,400 square feet) club. Many revellers slowly moved to a narrow exit -- some still sipping cocktails and smoking.
A few moments later, a stampede broke out as heavy black smoke quickly filled the hall and the crowd of more than 200 guests rushed headlong trying to escape.
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