Russia announces fireworks ban in public venues
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A ban on the use of fireworks in Russia's public gathering venues was issued on Sunday, following a deadly nightclub blaze in Urals that killed 112 people and injured a further 130.
Sergei Shoigu, Russian Emergency Situations Minister, instructed the emergencies ministry to monitor the implementation of the ban on pyrotechnics, particularly during the New Year and Christmas celebrations.
Flames sparked by indoor fireworks ripped through the "Lame Horse" nightclub in the Russia's Ural city of Perm overnight to Saturday when about 230 people celebrated there the venue's eighth anniversary.
It was reported that many victims were suffocated or crushed to death at the club's single exit.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has declared Monday a day of national mourning for the dead.
Urgent inspections of fire safety standards at mass gathering spots nationwide had been ordered, said Shoigu, adding that the emergencies ministry would soon submit proposals on harsher punishment for the violations of fire safety rules, which has been common cause of incidents with high casualties in Russia in recent years.
The owner, the co-owner and the manager of the nightclub, an art director and a private operator in charge of the fireworks have been arrested.
Investigators are preparing to file charges against four suspects of the tragedy, said Marina Zabbarova, head of the Perm regional investigative committee.
"The club's owner, who is in a hospital, is among the suspects in the case, but investigative actions with him are so far impossible," said the investigation authority.
Nearly 100 of the over 130 injured in the calamity had been sent to St. Petersburg Hospital, Russia's top hospitals in Moscow, and Chelyabinsk hospital in the Urals.
Health and Social Development Minister Tatiana Golikova said all of the injured remain in critical condition.
Perm, a city on the Kama River some 1,200 km east of Moscow, is the capital of Russia's Perm region.
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