Moscow , Russia ( CNN ) -- Russian investigators on Saturday picked through the remains of a burned-out nightclub and detained at least five people in the aftermath of an explosive inferno , the result of an alleged misuse of fireworks that claimed more than 100 lives . Friday night 's fire -- in the Ural Mountain area industrial city of Perm -- swept through a party in full swing at the Lame Horse , a local nightclub celebrating its eighth year in business . The blast and fire engulfed the club , law enforcement officials said , as a performance artist juggled cold-flame pyrotechnical maces . As he threw them high in the air , the club 's ceiling caught fire and almost immediately spread on to the wooden walls , cutting off exits . People succumbed to smoke inhalation or were trampled attempting to escape the panicky chaos . The latest death reports varied , with one count as high as 109 . Around 130 people were injured , authorities said , with dozens were in critical condition and many of them hooked up to artificial lung ventilators . Authorities have opened a criminal investigation . The Investigative Committee of the Russian Prosecutor 's Office said several people have been detained : two club co-owners , a club manager , the night club art director , and a businessman who provided the fireworks and is now suffering from burns at a hospital . `` A lot of people were lying on the floor of the club , '' according to one young female witness . `` Those of them who breathed were carried out and put in cars . The biggest problem was that each ambulance took only one person . They did n't take any more . We were yelling at doctors , forcing them to take more people at once . '' Igor Goncharov , a Perm municipal official , said city workers were helping distraught relatives , who wanted to know the fate of their loved ones . `` We work with the victims ' relatives here . We give them the information about people who are in hospitals and those who were found dead and recognized by the forensic bureau , '' Goncharov said . Shocked residents placed flowers outside the burned club in memory of the victims , a scene that brought back memories of two other Russian deadly club fires -- one in Moscow in 2007 and the other in Omsk in 2008 . The tragedy startled Russians , reeling after last week 's derailment of a luxury express train from Moscow to St. Petersburg . That incident -- which killed 26 people and injured more than 100 others -- has been called a terror attack , the most lethal terrorist act outside of Russia 's troubled North Caucasus region since 2004 . But this latest nightclub accident , in the Russian heartland around 900 miles east of Moscow , is believed to have been caused by what one Russian official says was the `` unsanctioned use of pyrotechnical devices . '' `` The breach of technology while setting off a firework was the cause of the accident , '' said Vladimir Markin , a spokesman for the Investigative Committee of the Russian Prosecutor 's Office . `` It was not a terrorist act . '' In a televised address from his country residence near Moscow , President Dmitry Medvedev demanded that those responsible for the accident get the harshest possible punishment . He sent government officials to Perm to handle the aftermath of the accident , organize medical assistance to survivors and investigate . Prime Minister Vladimir Putin dispatched two planes from Moscow equipped to carry people with extensive burns . CNN 's Max Tkachenko in Moscow and Luis Graham-Yooll in Perm contributed to this report .
At least five people detained in relation to fire that destroyed Russian club . 109 people were killed when a performance artist used cold - steel pyrotechnical maces . Around 200 people were injured , with dozens were in critical condition . Shocked residents placed flowers outside the burned club in memory of the victims .