A fire at a shopping centre in Russia has claimed at least 56 people with many still missing including dozens of children.
Pictures and video from the scene show people jumping from the four-storey Winter Cherry mall in Kemerovo which was only brought under control this morning.
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Footage shows panic as the fire broke out and one even shows people unable to escape because fire doors were locked.
Sergei Moskalenko, 11, is in hospital after jumping out of a burning window, unaware that his parents died in the fire.
Many children are believed to have become trapped in a cinema which was badly hit in the fire.
A heartbreaking final phone call from Viktoria ‘Vika’ Pochankina was recorded telling her aunt: ‘Everything is burning. The doors are blocked. I can’t get out, I can’t breath’.
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A young boy called Igor said: ‘I was watching a movie with my seven year old sister. Suddenly the door opened and a woman shouted – “fire!” Clouds of smoke appeared in a second, I grabbed my sister and we ran downstairs.
‘The crowd was terrible there, I could see nothing. It took us five minutes to run out. My hands are still trembling, what if that woman did not come in and shout…?’
The owner of the shopping mall has been taken in for questioning along with the official in charge of fire safety and a senior manager.
Local governor Aman Tuleev said he had lost an 11 year old relative in the fire.
‘I feel it very close, because my very close relative died there, a girl,’ he said.
The shopping centre is about 1,900 miles east of Moscow.
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Tass said the fire started on the top floor but the cause was not immediately known. A criminal investigation is under way.
The shopping mall, which opened in 2013, has a cinema, petting zoo, children’s centre and bowling, Tass reported.
A woman identified only as Ekaterina said: ‘I was with my husband on the third floor in a furniture shop. Suddenly the ceiling began to crack, first in one place, then everywhere.
‘We thought it would collapse on our heads in some seconds. Everyone rushed out including shop assistants, up to 50 people got in one lift.
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‘People were jumping on each other on the escalator. Men were running ahead of women… and on the ground floor all were just standing and watching our rush, nobody was in a hurry.
‘Many people got outside without coats, many were from fitness centre and spa, in flip flops and covered in towels… Some people looted TV sets.’
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