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All shopping malls across Russia to be inspected within month

The checks follow the deadly fire in a Kemerovo shopping center

© Egor Aleev/TASS

YEKATERINBURG, March 30. /TASS/. All shopping malls across Russia will be inspected concerning fire prevention arrangements after the deadly fire in a Kemerovo shopping center within one month, Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika said on Friday.

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"I have issued an order to check all shopping malls across Russia, regardless of their size. The prosecutor general’s office will send its officers to those cities where the situation is the worst to coordinate actions. I think this work will be over in a month," he said.

A fire broke out on the top floor of the Zimnyaya Vishnya (or Winter Cherry), a four-story shopping mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo on March 25, eventually engulfing an area of 1,500 square meters. According to latest reports, the catastrophic inferno claimed the lives of 64 people, including 41 children. Seventy-six people, including 27 children, were hurt.

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