37 dead, 69 missing in Russian shopping centre fire

MOSCOW (AP) — A devastating fire at a shopping centre in a Siberian city today killed 37 people and left 69 others missing, many of them children, a Russian state news agency reported.

The Tass agency quoted firefighters as saying that 40 of the missing at the four-story Winter Cherry mall in Kemerovo were children. An additional 43 people were injured in the blaze, the report said.

There has been no immediate information on the cause of the fire at the mall, which is about 1,900 miles east of Moscow. But Tass reported that the fire started on the top floor and consumed an area of about 16,150 square feet.

The reports didn’t say if the victims died from burns or smoke inhalation.

The shopping mall, which opened in 2013, has a cinema, petting zoo, children’s centre and bowling, Tass reported.