PUTIN BLAMES MALL FIRE ON ‘CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE’

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday blamed the mall fire that killed at least 64 people in the Siberian city of Kemerovo on “criminal negligence” as he visited the site two days after the tragedy.

At least 64 people, many of them children, died when a blaze raged through the busy shopping centre in the industrial city on Sunday, one of the deadliest fires recorded in Russia over the past century.

Putin flew to Kemerovo on Tuesday as questions swirled about the Kremlin’s handling of the country’s latest man-made disaster.

“What is happening here? These are not armed hostilities. This is not an unexpected release of methane. People, children came to relax,” Putin told officials in Kemerovo after laying flowers at a makeshift memorial of flowers, stuffed children’s toys and balloons near the gutted mall’s facade.

“We are talking about demographics but are losing so many people. Because of what? Because of some criminal negligence, slovenliness,” Putin said in comments released by the Kremlin.

The Kemerovo region declared three days of mourning beginning on Tuesday. But many critics wondered why the Kremlin did not call a nationwide day of mourning.

The Investigative Committee said a criminal probe has been opened and that five people have been arrested including an official of the mall’s security firm who is suspected of deactivating the public address system when the fire broke out.

MOSCOW: