Deaths in Russian shopping centre fire
Five people confirmed dead and 25 others missing after blaze causes centre’s collapse in Kazan.
Five people have been confirmed dead and 25 others are missing and presumed dead after a shopping centre in the Russian city of Kazan collapsed in a fire, emergency officials have said.
About 40 people were injured after the blaze engulfed Admiral centre in the city of Kazan on Wednesday.
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Officials said on Thursday that the toll of missing is based on reports from relatives and workers in the shopping centre.
Regional emergency services head Igor Panshin was quoted by the Tass news agency as saying “the hope of finding survivors under the shopping center debris has been abandoned.”
The cause of the fire has not been confirmed.
But Al Jazeera’s Rob Matheson cited witnesses as saying that the fire began in a cafe.
He also noted that the blaze engulfed “4,000 square metres of the shopping centre – an area almost as big as a soccer pitch”.