The death toll from a nightclub fire in the Russian city of Perm rose to 132 people on Thursday after seven more people died of severe burns, officials said.
”Today, three people died and last night three people died,” a Perm regional emergency services spokesperson told Agence France-Presse by telephone on Thursday.
Soon after another man died in hospital in St Petersburg, bringing the death toll to 132, the RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing the regional governor’s office.
The Health Ministry has said more than 100 burn victims were in intensive care in hospitals in Moscow, St Petersburg and Chelyabinsk.
Four people, including the club’s managing director, art director and co-founder, have been charged as part of an ongoing probe into the fire, sparked by indoor fireworks on December 5. They face up to seven years in jail.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday the nightclub owners had violated ”every possible rule” of fire safety, in one of the deadliest accidents in Russia’s recent history.
In a rare move the local government of the Perm region quit en masse this week after President Dmitry Medvedev told the regional governor he expected swift punishment for all those responsible in the tragedy.
The disaster highlighted chronic lax enforcement of fire safety regulations in Russia, where the death rate from fires is several times higher than in the West. — AFP
