The fire which killed 64 people, many of them children, at a leisure complex was caused by “criminal negligence”, President Vladimir Putin has said, TASS reported.

“What is happening here?”, the Russian president said after laying a wreath at the scene. “This is no battle or an unexpected methane outburst in a mine.”

“People, children came to relax. We are talking about demography and are losing so many people because of what? Because of criminal negligence, sloppiness.”

He also offered his condolences to the families and friends of the victims, starting the meeting with a moment of silence.

A total of 64 people were killed in the fire that swept through the Winter Cherry shopping mall in Russia’s Kemerovo.

Five people have been arrested including the official suspected of deactivating the public address system. </s> Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said the shopping mall fire that claimed 64 lives, including those of 41 children, was caused by “criminal negligence” and all those responsible for it would be punished.

The horrific fire started on the top floor of the four-storey Winter Cherry shopping mall on Sunday in Kemerovo, located in southern Siberia around 3,000 km east of Moscow. Most of the victims were children as the mall’s shops, cinema and bowling alley were packed due to school holidays.

Visiting the scene in Kemerovo, Putin berated “sloppiness” and told relatives of the victims that there would be a thorough investigation into the incident and those responsible would be punished, TASS news agency reported.

“A 100-member investigative group is working here, headed by the Investigative Committee chief. Rest assured, all those responsible will be punished,” he said.

The inferno engulfed a children’s trampoline room and a cinema hall on the fourth floor. Russia’s Investigative Committee (ICR) in a statement cited “serious violations” and said a fire safety technician at the complex “switched off the alarm system” after being alerted about the fire.

It said a criminal investigation into the cause of the fire had begun, although reports suggested that it could have been started by a child misusing a cigarette lighter or malfunctioning electrical wires.

Out of 64 bodies, 25 were identified which included 13 children, TASS reported.

“The bodies of 13 children who died in the fire have been identified,” Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said. She also said that experts started DNA tests required for identifying the bodies of those who died in the deadly inferno.

An official in the emergency services said that another 68 people were injured and poisoned with combustion products. Putin visited the injured in Kemerovo’s regional hospital.

Interfax news agency reported that some 300 people gathered outside the local government headquarters demanding the dismissal of authorities.

“What is happening here?”, the Russian President said after laying a wreath at the scene. “This is no battle or an unexpected methane outburst in a mine.”

“People, children came to relax. We are talking about demography and are losing so many people because of what? Because of criminal negligence, sloppiness,” he said. Five people were arrested including the official suspected of deactivating the public address system.

The Kemerovo region will observe three days of mourning starting on Tuesday.

“The mourning will last for three days from March 27 to 29. The corresponding order was signed by Governor Aman Tuleyev. The state flags of the Russian Federation and the flags of the region will be lowered on the whole territory of the Kemerovo region,” an official statement said.

All institutions, organisations, TV and radio companies were asked to cancel recreational activities.

Meanwhile, the head of the city’s fire department Sergei Yakovlev said that the blaze had spread via flammable thermal insulation that complicated the process of extinguishing the inferno. </s> Vladimir Putin has said the high death toll from a fire at a shopping centre in the Siberian city of Kemerovo was the result of “criminal negligence”, during a visit to the scene of the blaze.

At least 64 people were killed in the fire that broke out on Sunday afternoon. Investigators said fire exits at the mall had been illegally blocked and the fire alarm system had not functioned properly.

The fire swept through the upper floors of the Winter Cherry shopping centre, where a cinema complex and children’s play area were located.

Putin, re-elected as president last weekend, visited the scene on Tuesday and laid flowers at a makeshift memorial to the victims of the fire.

“What’s happening here? This isn’t war, it’s not a spontaneous methane outburst. People came to relax, children. We’re talking about demography and losing so many people,” Putin said in a meeting with ministers in Kemerovo.

“Why? Because of some criminal negligence, because of slovenliness. How could this ever happen?” he asked.

The head of Russia’s investigative committee, which handles major crimes, said the fire alarm system in the mall had been out of order since 19 March and a security guard had not turned on the public address system to warn people to evacuate the building.

The committee said earlier it was trying to bring in the mall’s owner for questioning.

“Serious violations [of the law] took place when the mall was being built and when it was functioning. The fire exits were blocked,” Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for the committee, said on Monday.

Four people have been detained, including two employees of the firm that services the mall’s fire alarm.

Emergency services said they had extinguished the fire, but later said it had reignited in places and that rescuers were struggling to recover bodies because the building’s top floor had collapsed. It was unclear on Tuesday whether any people were still unaccounted for.

The health minister, Veronika Skvortsova, said at the scene that 13 people were in hospital, including an 11-year-old boy in a serious condition. Russian media said the boy had leaped from a window and that both his parents had been killed.

Officials said many of the victims would be identifiable by only DNA testing. An unofficial list of those missing, circulating in Russian media, included more than 20 children, some as young as five.

News reports on state-run television Monday said young children had called relatives from the burning shopping centre. “Tell my mother that I loved her,” one young girl told her aunt, according to the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. “”Tell everyone that I loved them.”

“We are burning,” another young woman wrote on the social network VK. “This may be goodbye.”

The fire was the deadliest since a club in the Siberian city of Perm burned down in 2009, killing 156. </s> At least 64 people, 41 of them children, died when a blaze raged through the busy shopping centre in the industrial city on Sunday, one of the deadliest fires recorded in Russia over the past century

Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the mall fire that killed at least 64 people in the Siberian city of Kemerovo on "criminal negligence" as he visited the site two days after the tragedy.

At least 64 people, 41 of them children, died when a blaze raged through the busy shopping centre in the industrial city on Sunday, one of the deadliest fires recorded in Russia over the past century.

"We are talking about demographics but are losing so many people because of some criminal negligence, slovenliness," Putin said after laying flowers at a makeshift memorial of flowers, stuffed toys and balloons near the gutted mall's facade. Thousands of people have protested in Kemerovo, angry at Russian officials over the leisure complex fire.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever </s> MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday the deadly fire in Kemerovo was a result of "criminal negligence", according to comments aired by state television from Kemerovo.

Investigators looking into the fire that killed at least 64 people at a busy shopping mall in Siberia on Sunday have said a security guard had turned off the public address system and exits had been illegally blocked.

 

 

 

 (Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; writing by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Sam Holmes) </s> A Russian city is in mourning after a traffic accident killed 12 people, including 10 members of a children's acrobatics team.

Police say at least 19 other people were injured when a bus carrying 34 passengers, including 27 children, collided with a truck and two other vehicles on a road in northwestern Siberia on December 4.

The children were returning to their hometown of Nefteyugansk from a competition in the city of Khanty-Mansiisk.

On December 5, authorities in Nefteyugansk announced a three-day mourning period

Russia's Investigative Committee said an investigation was launched on suspicion of "violation of traffic regulations leading to multiple deaths."

It said requests for arrest warrants for the drivers of the bus and the truck had been filed with prosecutors. Both drivers survived.

President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to the families of the victims on December 4.

Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax </s> Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday visited the scene of a fire in a shopping mall that killed at least 64 people, and hit out at “criminal negligence” which he said was to blame for the high death toll. Investigators looking into a fire, one of the deadliest in Russia since the break-up of the Soviet Union, said fire exits at the mall had been illegally blocked and the fire alarm system had not functioned properly.

The fire swept through the upper floors of the Winter Cherry shopping centre in the city of Kemerovo, where a cinema complex and children’s play area were located, on Sunday afternoon.

Dozens of children were feared to be among the dead in the tragedy in Kemerovo, a coal-producing region about 3,600 km (2,200 miles) east of Moscow. As well as grief, the fire has stirred public anger about apparent failures in fire safety standards at the mall.

Putin, re-elected last weekend, arrived at the scene on Tuesday and laid flowers at a makeshift memorial to the victims of the fire.

“What’s happening here? This isn’t war, it’s not a spontaneous methane outburst. People came to relax, children. We’re talking about demography and losing so many people,” Putin said in a meeting with ministers in Kemerovo.

“Why? Because of some criminal negligence, because of slovenliness. How could this ever happen?” Putin asked.

The head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, which handles major crimes, said the fire alarm system in the mall had been out of order since March 19 and a security guard had not turned on the public address system to warn people to evacuate the building.

The committee said earlier it was trying to bring in the mall’s owner for questioning.

“Serious violations (of the law) took place when the mall was being built and when it was functioning. The fire exits were blocked,” Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for the committee, said in a statement on Monday.

Four people have already been detained, including two employees of the firm that services the mall’s fire alarm.

Emergency services said they had extinguished the fire, but later said it had re-ignited in places and that rescuers were struggling to recover bodies because the building’s top floor had collapsed.

It was unclear whether any people were still unaccounted for.

Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said from the scene that 13 people were in hospital, including an 11-year-old boy in a serious condition. Russian media said the boy had leapt from a window and that both his parents had been killed.

Many of the victims will only be identifiable by DNA testing, officials said.

An unofficial list of those missing circulating on Russian media included more than 20 children, some as young as five.

Mobile phone messages sent from one of those on the list, 13-year-old Maria Moroz, and published by Russian media, said: “We are burning. I love you all. This is perhaps farewell.”

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The leisure complex fire killed at least 64 people, 41 of them children

Thousands of people have protested in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, angry at Russian officials over the leisure complex fire that killed at least 64 people, 41 of them children.

President Vladimir Putin arrived in Kemerovo earlier and blamed "criminal negligence" for Sunday's blaze.

Relatives say dozens of people - including children - are still missing.

Investigators say the fire alarm was switched off and exits blocked. Four people have been charged.

Another detained suspect - a guard from a private security firm - will be charged shortly, Russia's Investigative Committee says.

A national day of mourning will be observed on Wednesday.

What did protesters demand?

Several thousand people rallied outside the local government headquarters, saying that officials must be sacked over the fire safety shortcomings.

There were also some chants of "Putin resign!"

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The gutted interior of the Kemerovo leisure complex

A woman in the crowd drew applause when she said "children called their parents, asked them for help, asked for the fire brigades to be sent in".

Many demonstrators said they did not trust the authorities and did not believe the announced death toll was accurate.

Officials were booed when they urged the crowd to disperse, after the protest had already lasted seven hours, Russia's RIA news agency reported.

Regional Deputy Governor Sergei Tsivilev then got down on his knees to beg forgiveness, and was applauded by the crowd.

President Putin expressed indignation over the disaster - though he did not speak to the crowd.

"People, children came to relax. We are talking about demography and are losing so many people because of what? Because of criminal negligence, sloppiness," he said.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption 'My whole family has died'

What's the latest on the victims and the missing?

Russian investigators have so far confirmed the deaths of 64 people, 21 of whom have been identified.

Some of the bodies were badly burned in the Zimnyaya Vishnya (Winter Cherry) complex, and DNA tests will be required, the Investigative Committee says.

It says it is too early to publish the victims' list, "to avoid any mistakes".

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mr Putin (touching patient) met some survivors in a Kemerovo hospital

Meanwhile, relatives of the victims say that another 67 people are missing - in contrast to Kemerovo's authorities, which have published a list of 38 people missing.

This added to the confusion, angering the public.

What caused the fire?

Officials are still investigating this. The blaze started on an upper floor of the complex at about 17:00 local time (10:00 GMT) on Sunday.

It was packed at the time as it was the beginning of the school holiday.

Senior regional official Vladimir Chernov was quoted as saying the fire probably began in the children's trampoline room on the top floor of the four-storey building.

"The preliminary suspicion is that a child had a cigarette lighter which ignited foam rubber in this trampoline room, and it erupted like gunpowder," he said.

However, Rossiya 24 TV, a national broadcaster, said an electrical fault was the most likely cause - as in most previous deadly fires in Russia.

Investigative Committee head Aleksander Bastrykin said the fire alarm at the complex had been down since 19 March, and nobody even tried to fix it.

He also said that the working public alert button was not activated by one of the guards "for unknown reasons".

Mr Bastrykin said investigators had found that many doors on the fourth floor were blocked. Three cinema halls and youth rooms were located on that floor.

He said the investigators believed this was done to prevent people without tickets from entering the cinema halls.

Kemerovo lies about 3,600km (2,200 miles) east of Moscow.

The shopping centre, covering 23,000 sq m (248,000 sq ft), opened in 2013. It includes a petting zoo, all of whose animals are reported to have died.

'There was no panic - she was saying goodbye'

At the scene: Sergei Goryashko and Elizaveta Fokht, BBC Russian

Kemerovo residents' anger has built up since Sunday and it burst forth at the rally of several thousand outside the city's administration building.

The main slogans were "Truth!" and "Resign!" - directed at local officials.

The most active among them was Igor Vostrikov, whose wife, sister and three children - aged two, five and seven - all died in the fire.

Deputy governor Tsivilev accused him of trying to gain publicity out of the tragedy. Igor's reply was that his entire family had suffocated in the cinema, unable to escape because the doors were locked.

Fighting back tears, he described his wife's last moments, when she phoned him, short of breath. "There was no panic - she was saying goodbye."

"I have nothing more to lose," he said.

Dozens of people vowed to stay on the square until governor Aman Tuleyev resigns. </s> Moscow: Aman Tuleyev, the longtime governor of Russia's Kemerovo region where a huge mall fire killed at least 64 people including 41 children last weekend, resigned on Sunday.

"I submitted my resignation letter to the Russian president," he said in a three-minute video address released by his office.

Tuleyev, who had been at the helm of the key coal-mining region since 1997, said he could no longer remain at his post with "such a heavy burden" and added that his resignation was "the only right choice".

At least 64 people — including 41 children — died when a huge fire ravaged a mall in the industrial city of Kemerovo in western Siberia last Sunday. The tragedy — in which some parents lost all their children — plunged Russia into shock.

Many people who lost relatives have said they died because of the inaction of firefighters and police lacking the necessary equipment and skills.

Tuleyev himself came under heavy criticism for failing to visit the scene of the tragedy in the first few days or meet with angry relatives. President Vladimir Putin had initially refused to sack the 73-year-old governor despite rare protests in the city. Officials have said that multiple safety rules were violated, the fire alarm system was not working and staff did not follow correct emergency procedures.
President Vladimir Putin visits the scene and declares "criminal negligence" responsible for the high death toll.