Preliminary investigations point to the fire having broken out in the cinema hall area of the four-story Winter Cherry shopping mall in the center of Kemerovo. At least four people, three of them children, have been killed and dozens injured in a fire at a shopping centre in Siberia, media reports say. (AP Photo)

With the fire alarms silent and staff reportedly nowhere to be seen, a fire at a shopping mall packed with children and their parents on the first weekend of the school recess killed 64 people in Russia’s Siberia. The inferno ripped through the top floor of the four-story commercial complex in the city of Kemerovo, located in southern Siberia around 3,000 kilometers (1,865 miles) east of Moscow. Firefighters said the building was still smouldering a day later, with smoke billowing out and the remaining structures at risk of collapse. Some of the dead were found inside a cinema, which one witness said had been locked shut. Investigators said Monday that emergency exits were blocked and a security guard turned off the public announcement system when he received a call about the blaze. On Monday morning, Kemerovo residents were bringing flowers, candles and stuffed animals to a plaza outside the mall, and local hospitals reported an influx of people wanting to donate blood for the victims. Sixty-four deaths were confirmed after the firefighters finished combing through the four floors of the mall, Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Puchkov told a televised briefing. At least nine of the bodies found so far are children. Puchkov would not immediately say how many of the victims were children as only 17 people have been identified. Ten people are still listed as missing. Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova, who visited the Keremovo hospital where the victims were receiving treatment, said on Russian state television that the patient in the gravest condition is an 11-year-old boy who jumped out of a window from the fourth floor. Image copyright AFP Image caption Smoke billowed from the building

The most serious case is an 11-year-old boy whose parents and siblings died in the fire, Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said. Some 200 animals are also believed to have died in the mall’s petting zoo. Eyewitnesses said the popular shopping centre also contained a zoo, with animals including guinea pigs, goats, hedgehogs and cats - although there have been no reports of any animal fatalities. Russia’s top investigative body said Monday afternoon that they are searching for a security officer who appears to have turned off the PA system when he received a call about the blaze. Four people have been detained for questioning, including the head of the company that manages the shopping centre, according to the Investigative Committee. The investigators did not give the cause of the fire but said they have obtained evidence proving “flagrant violations” that could have contributed to the heavy loss of life, including the fact that the fire escapes were blocked. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday it was too early to draw conclusions about whether local officials failed in Kemerovo. Around ten people are still missing after the blaze broke out on Sunday afternoon, when the mall was packed with shoppers and cinema goers. “I was shouting into the phone, telling her to get out but there was nothing I could do — the fire was in front of me,” he said.
A fire in the Winter Cherry complex, a shopping centre in Kemerovo, Russia, kills at least 64 people, the majority of which are children.