Russia mourns victims of deadly mall fire in Siberia
MOSCOW — Flags flew at half-staff across Russia on Wednesday as the country mourned 64 victims — many of them children — of a shopping mall fire in Siberia.
The blaze engulfed the four-story mall in the eastern city of Kemerovo on Sunday while it was packed with parents and children on the first weekend of the school recess.
Investigators identified a short circuit as a possible cause and said the emergency exits were locked shut, hampering any evacuation. Some of the victims, many of them young children, died inside a locked movie theatre.
Wednesday was declared a day of mourning in Russia, and thousands of people have been bringing flowers and stuffed toys to makeshift memorials across the country.