Governor resigns after fire in Russian shopping centre

The governor of the Siberian region where a shopping centre fire killed 64 people has resigned, the Kremlin said.

A statement yesterday said Aman Tuleyev had offered his resignation and that it was accepted by President Vladimir Putin.

Mr Tuleyev had headed the Kemerovo region for more than 20 years.

A fire on 25 March at a fourstorey shopping centre in the regional capital, also called Kemerovo, prompted thousands of people to demonstrate last week, calling for regional officials’ resignations and alleging widespread corruption and incompetency.

Seven people have been arrested in the case, including the woman who headed the local building inspection agency when the shopping centre was constructed. Fire survivors say the centre’s fire alarm system did not work during the blaze.

The dead included 41 children.

News of the governor’s resignation came as fresh testimony emerged of the final moments of those trapped in the shopping centre.

Eleven-year-old Vika Pochankina’s last words came in a panicked phone call to her aunt: “I’m suffocating. Tell Mama that I loved her.”

Yevgenia Pochankina told her niece to cover her nose with her clothes to fend off the smoke.

“After a moment, she disconnected,” the aunt said.

The deaths have tormented loved ones not only with the memories of those they have lost but with deep dismay about the state of life in Russia.

“This tragedy reflects all of Russia’s problems – the corruption of officials who closed their eyes to problems with fire safety, uncoordinated work of the special services, the imperviousness of authorities,” said Rasim Yaraliyev, head of a citizen’s group pressing for answers about the fire.

Igor Vostrikov, whose wife, three daughters and a sister died in the fire, said that investigators had let him see him CCTV footage from outside the movie theatre, showing that the entrance doors to the room where they died were locked by a man who possibly was trying to keep the smoke out until a rescue team arrived.

On Saturday, he posted a video apparently showing a woman opening the door to that room as smoke began filling the multiplex’s hallway but she apparently says nothing. The video showed people fleeing other rooms.

Distrust in Russian officials’ promises of a thorough investigation is strong. 0 Siberian regional governor Aman Tuleyev, who has resigned in the wake of the shopping centre fire in which 41 children died