vIndianz.com (Dec. 05, 2009) — A blast and fire it seems caused by pyrotechnics tore through a nightclub in the Russian city of Perm early Saturday, killing 101 people, according to news reports.
Regional security minister Igor Orlov said the club had a hovering plastic ceiling that caught fire rapidly when ignited by supposed “cold fireworks,” which usually are fountain-type displays with lower temperatures than usual fireworks, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
“The greater part of the deaths were the consequence of burns or gas inhalation,” state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia’s top investigate body, as saying “Along with this, there was a crush at the exit.”
State television showed burnt bodies lying in rows outside the club in the midst of a light snowfall. Markin said the majority of the victims were young people, and that there was no doubt of a terrorist attack.
Russia has been tense ever since last week’s bombing of the esteemed Nevsky Express passenger train midway between Moscow and St Petersburg, which killed 27 people. It was the first deadly terrorist assault outside Russia’s restive Caucasus republics since 2004. Chechen rebels claimed blame for the bombing.
State television news channel Vesti cited the regional branch of Emergencies as saying the toll was 101 dead and 160 injured. Other reports put the number of dead in the high 90s.
Perm, a city of approximately 1 million people, is about 700 miles (1,200 kilometers) east of Moscow in the Ural Mountains. Enforcement of fire protection standards in Russia is scandalously lax and in recent years there have been numerous disastrous blazes at drug-treatment facilities and apartment buildings.
Russia account nearly 18,000 fire deaths a year, numerous times the per capita rate in the United States and other Western countries. Nightclub fires have killed thousands of people internationally. Ten people died when a supposed “fire show” went out of control at a Moscow club in March 2007.
In February 2008, a fire in the Golden Rock nightclub in the Siberian city of Omsk killed four people. Officials said the blast may have been caused by natural gas.
A nightclub fire in the US state of Rhode Island in 2003 killed 100 people after pyrotechnics used as a stage prop by the 1980s rock band Great White set on fire cheap soundproofing foam on the walls and ceiling.
Further Reading- Suicide car bomb in Iraq’s Tikrit kills 13 – Reuters
- Israeli gunfire kills 2 at border, Syrian TV says – The Associated Press
- Biden in Moscow for talks but Libya may steal the show – Christian Science Monitor
- Suicide Car Bombing Kills 9 Iraqi Policemen – Voice of America
- Atlanta club sues LeBron James – Atlanta Journal Constitution
- Putin says concerned by civilian deaths in Libya – Reuters
- Wal-Mart Closes Russia Office, Will Focus On Emerging Markets – Wall Street Journal
- Moscow’s airport suicide bomber hesitated for 15 min – investigator – RIA Novosti
- At least 7 killed in suicide attack at Pakistan political rally – CNN International
- British diplomat ordered out of Russia in tit-for-tat expulsion – The Guardian
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