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Death toll from shopping mall fire in Kemerovo reaches five, 30 taken to hospital

A criminal case was opened over the incident

MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/. Death toll from the shopping mall fire in Russia’s Siberian city of Kemerovo has reached five; thirty people were taken to hospital, a spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee said on Sunday.

"According to the latest updates, five people - three women, one child and one man - died," the spokesman said. "Thirty-two people turned to medics, of whom 30 were taken to hospital."

A criminal case was opened over the incident.

The fire at the Zimnyaya Vishnya (Winter Cherry) shopping mall in central Kemerovo started on the fourth, top, floor and consumed an area of about 1,500 square meters. Twenty people were saved from the burning building, and some 100 others were evacuated.

The shopping mall with an overall area of 23,000 square meters was opened in 2013. It has a parking lot for 250 cars, shops, a bowling, a children’s center, a cinema, and a petting zoo.

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