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Death toll from a fire in a hospital in Tatarstan rises to three

By now the fire has been extinguished

KAZAN, May 23. /TASS/. The death toll from a fire in the hospital in the city of Zelenodolsk in the republic of Tatarstan has risen from two to three, the press service of the Health Ministry of the republic told TASS on Saturday.

"[There is] a third fatality," the ministry’s official said.

Earlier, the press service of the Health Ministry of Tatarstan told TASS that two people had been killed and four injured.

The republic’s Health Minister, Marat Sadykov, arrived at the scene of the incident. Investigators of the republic opened a criminal case under article 219 of the Criminal Code ("Violation of fire safety requirements").

The fire fighters received a message about a fire in the vascular department of a two-story hospital building in Zelenodolsk at 10:15 Moscow time, the ministry’s press service said. The fire gripped the area of five square meters in a ward on the ground floor of the hospital. By 10.31 pm Moscow time the fire was extinguished. 88 patients had been evacuated to a neighboring building. According to preliminary data, the fire could be caused by a short circuit.