The fire engulfed the upper floors of the Winter Cherry Mall in the city of Kemerovo on Sunday, turning a children’s play area and cinema into an inferno. Authorities have not said how many children were among the dead, but on Sunday, the country’s emergencies ministry had said 40 children were missing after the fire.
Russian police said another 44 people had been injured, with 12 hospitalized.
Firefighters on Monday pulled dozens of bodies from the burnt floors. The fire appeared to have started on the fourth floor that housed a cinema and amusements arcade. The blaze was so intense that firefighters struggled to reach it. On Monday, part of the smouldering building briefly caught fire again before it was extinguished.
The cause of the fire has yet to be established, but investigators on Monday said they had found “serious violations” in the mall’s maintenance and suggested fire regulations were not observed. Russia’s Investigative Committee, which handles especially serious crimes, said in a statement that the mall’s fire exits had been blocked and that a security guard had turned off the fire alarm when it sounded. Multiple eyewitnesses speaking to Russian media have described not hearing any alarm, with people only realizing there was something wrong when they saw smoke and flames.