Four killed in shopping centre blaze

Three children and a woman have died in a fire that broke out in a multi-storey shopping centre in the Siberian city of Kemerovo.

There has been no immediate information on the cause of yesterday’s fire in the city 1,900 miles east of Moscow.

Russia’s Investigative Committee initially said four children died in the fire, but committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said it was three children and a woman, all found in a children’s playroom.

She did not say whether they died of burns or smoke inhalation. State news agency Tass said nine other people were hospitalised from the blaze.