Blast in Russian nightclub kills 100MOSCOW
Fri Dec 4, 2009 6:00pm EST
MOSCOW (Reuters) - At least 100 people were killed and 60 injured when a blast ripped through a packed nightclub in the center of the Russian city of Perm Friday, Russian news agencies reported.
World
The blast -- which state media said was caused by an accident involving fireworks -- tore through the Lame Horse nightclub in the center of Perm, near the Ural mountains, at 11:15 P.M. Moscow time (20:15 GMT).
Russian state-run television channel Vesti-24 showed bodies piled on top of each other in the street outside the club.
Local media quoted investigators as saying 100 people were killed and another 60 injured. At least 200 people were in the club at the time of the blast.
"We are not talking about a terrorist attack; we are talking about a failure to observe fire regulations," ITAR-TASS news agency quoted a spokesman for the Prosecutor-General's main investigative unit as saying.
Perm has a population of 1.2 million and is the 6th largest city in Russia.
The blast follows a deadly train bombing last week, which killed 26 and injured over 100 on a luxury train traveling between Moscow and St Petersburg, for which Chechen Islamist militants claimed responsibility.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B34RD20091204
