The number of fatalities caused by Sunday’s fire in a shopping center in the Russian city of Kemerovo, Siberia, amounts to 64 people, according to NBC News.
“At this moment the death of 53 people has been confirmed,” CIR spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko told reporters on Sunday. She reported the arrest of four people on the occasion of the open criminal case in connection with the incident. The figure was raised to 64 on Monday.
Petrenko said that among the detainees are the tenant of the place where the fire originated and the general director of the fiduciary society that administers the shopping center.
The fire at the four-story Winter Cherry shopping center in Kemerovo, a city about 1,900 miles east of Moscow, died on Monday morning after it had been active all night.
Parts of the building were still smoking and the movie theater floor had collapsed in some places, emergency officials said.
The death toll amounted to 64 people on Monday morning after the discovery of more bodies, the Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement.
It is believed that there may be more victims, the firefighters said.
The fire alarm was not activated and center staff did not organize the evacuation, two witnesses told radio station Ekho Mosvky.
The shopping center, which used to be a candy factory, opened its doors in 2013 and was very popular with residents for its facilities for children, which included a petting zoo.
