All news

Radicals siege Odessa mayor’s office after deadly fire in children’s camp

The rally was sparked by a fire that broke out in Odessa’s Viktoriya summer camp on Friday, leaving three children dead

KIEV, September 17. /TASS/. A group of right-wing radicals besieged the mayor’s office in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa on Saturday following a deadly fire in a local summer camp, the Timer Odessa news portal reported.

The spontaneous rally was sparked by a fire that broke out in Odessa’s Viktoriya camp at 23:00 Moscow time on Friday. The blaze quickly engulfed one of the camp’s buildings, where 42 children were staying, forcing them to jump out of windows. As a result, three children died and two were hospitalized.

According to the portal, parents of the children, who were staying at the camp at the moment of the tragedy, joined the protests outside the mayor’s office at first. However, they left fairly soon.

A mayor’s representative, Grigory Zubov, tried to appease the protestors, but they poured water on him and demanded a meeting with Odessa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov.

Shortly after, the nationalists tried to force their way into the building, but failed to break through security cordons.

Currently, a day of mourning has been declared in the Odessa Region. The camp’s chief was detained on suspicion of violating fire safety rules. The mayor of Odessa signed a decree to sack a local administration chief, as well as the camp's director Petros Sarkisyan and his deputy in charge of fire safety. The head of the region’s education department, Yelena Buinovich, tendered her resignation over the tragedy.