109 Dead as Blast Rips Through Russian Nightclub

At least 109 people were killed and scores more injured after a fireworks display apparently went catastrophically wrong at a nightclub in the Russian city of Perm late last night.

A blast ripped through the Lame Horse Club in the city center as employees and their families were enjoying a celebration party to mark the eighth anniversary of its opening. At least 60 were reported to have been treated in hospital for injuries.

“Ninety people were killed, bodies were evacuated from the scene,” Igor Orlov, the Perm region’s Public Security Minister told Interfax news.

Police and emergency services initially feared a terrorist attack but later reported that the explosion had been caused by fireworks. Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office said: “The accident was due to a violation of instructions when launching fireworks.”

State television broadcast harrowing scenes of bodies piled up in the street outside the club, which was packed with more than 200 people at the party. Investigators said that most of the victims had died of smoke inhalation or had been crushed in a stampede to escape the building after the blast.

“We are not talking about a terrorist attack; we are talking about a failure to observe fire regulations,” a spokesman for the investigators told Itar-Tass.

It was unclear last night what sort of fireworks display had been planned at the club and whether the pyrotechnics were being used in a show or had gone off while in storage. Russian news agencies said that a blaze broke out at the club, which is next to a residential building, but was put out by firefighters.

President Medvedev telephoned the regional governor after the tragedy and told him to report on measures taken to aid the victims. Perm is Russia’s sixth largest city with a population of 1.2 million and is near the Ural Mountains, about 800 miles east of Moscow.