Deadly fire at Russian shopping mall

A view shows the burnt facade of a shopping mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, Russia March 27, 2018. REUTERS/Maksim Lisov

An emergency service worker removes debris at the fire-damaged shopping mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, Russia March 27, 2018. REUTERS/Maksim Lisov

People hold placards as they stand near lit candles arranged to read "Kemerovo" during a rally demanding safety after the shopping mall fire in Kemerovo, at Pushkin Square in central Moscow, Russia March 27, 2018. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

People mourn victims of the shopping mall fire in Kemerovo at an impromptu memorial in central Stavropol, Russia March 27, 2018. REUTERS/Eduard Korniyenko

A man reacts at the scene of a fire in a shopping mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, Russia March 25, 2018. President Vladimir Putin flew to the scene of a deadly shopping mall fire in Siberia that killed 64 people and promised angry residents on...more

A fire at a shopping mall in Kemerovo. The fire, at the Winter Cherry mall in the city of Kemerovo, killed 41 children, according to the Interfax news agency, and the calamitous way it was handled has stirred anger and focused attention on corruption...more

Members of the Emergency Situations Ministry work to extinguish a fire in a shopping mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo. The fire, one of the deadliest in Russia since the breakup of the Soviet Union, swept through the upper floors of the "Winter...more

The shopping mall, a former cake factory, had few windows or doors. REUTERS/Marina Lisova

Video footage from inside the mall after the fire broke out showed a group of people in a smoke-filled staircase trying to smash a fire exit door, which was jammed. REUTERS/Maksim Lisov

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with victims at a hospital in Kemerovo, March 27, 2018. Sputnik/Alexei Druzhinin/Kremlin via REUTERS

Witnesses were quoted by Russian media as saying that the fire alarm had failed to go off, and that many people had found themselves trapped because exit doors were locked. Russian Emergencies Ministry/via REUTERS

Alexander Bastrykin, head of Russia's Investigative Committee, which handles major crimes, told Putin the fire alarm system in the mall had been out of order since March 19 and that a security guard had not turned on the public address system to warn...more

A woman speaks on her phone at the scene. Many locals do not believe the official death toll of 64 and suspect that hundreds of people were killed in the blaze and that a cover-up is underway, something Putin has flatly denied. Relatives of the...more

The Interfax news agency cited an unnamed local official source as saying the main theory being looked at was that the fire had been caused by an electrical short circuit. REUTERS/Marina Lisova

Georgy Sobolev, the technical director of the company which owns the Kemerovo confectionery company, sits inside the defendants' cage as he attends a hearing on his detention in the case of the shopping mall fire at a court in Kemerovo, March 27,...more

People attend a rally after the shopping mall fire, near the regional administration's building in Kemerovo, Russia March 27, 2018. REUTERS/Marina Lisova

People hold placards during a rally after the shopping mall fire, near the regional administration's building in Kemerovo, Russia March 27, 2018. The placards read: "How many victims are there really?", "Who is really guilty?", "How much does it cost...more

A member of the Emergency Situations Ministry reacts at the scene. REUTERS/Maksim Lisov

A member of the Emergency Situations Ministry at the scene. REUTERS/Marina Lisova

Members of the Emergency Situations Ministry work to extinguish the fire. REUTERS/Marina Lisova

Clothes piled on a police car at the scene. REUTERS/Marina Lisova

Members of the Emergency Situations Ministry work to extinguish the fire. Russian Emergencies Ministry/via REUTERS

Firefighters at the shopping mall. REUTERS/Dmitry Saturin

A member of the Emergency Situations Ministry. REUTERS/Maksim Lisov

Members of the Emergency Situations Ministry at the scene. Russian Emergencies Ministry/via REUTERS

A member of the Emergency Situations Ministry operates a drone at the scene of the fire. REUTERS/Maksim Lisov

Members of the Emergency Situations Ministry walk at the scene of the fire. REUTERS/Konstantin Nagovitsyn

A youth mourns the victims at a makeshift memorial. REUTERS/Maksim Lisov

People mourn the victims at a makeshift memorial in the Siberian city of Kemerovo. REUTERS/Maksim Lisov

A man mourns the victims at a makeshift memorial. REUTERS/Maksim Lisov

People mourn the victims at a makeshift memorial in the Siberian city of Kemerovo. REUTERS/Maksim Lisov

People place flowers at a makeshift memorial. REUTERS/Konstantin Nagovitsyn

A youth mourns the victims at a makeshift memorial. REUTERS/Maksim Lisov

People mourn the victims at a makeshift memorial. REUTERS/Konstantin Nagovitsyn