Russia. The local guy fired a rocket launcher. The club burned down, a dozen people died. The perpetrator was supposed to be a soldier who fought in Ukraine

A fire in the premises of “Poligon” in Kostroma, a city in the west of Russia with a population of about 270,000 inhabitants, it broke out around 2.30 am from Friday to Saturday. 250 people were evacuated from the building, the Meduza portal reported. When the fire broke out, it turned out that there were only three emergency exits in the premises, four others were closed. As a result of the fire, the roof collapsed on an area of ​​3.5 thousand square meters. square meters.

The independent portal Meduza reported that the owner of the club is a local deputy of the ruling United Russia party, Ichtiar Mirzojew.

After the tragedy, information about the deaths of 15 people was announced, later there were data about 13 killed. About 60 people who were injured sought medical attention. Four people are in a coma.

The cause of the fire was most likely a rocket launcher shot by one of the guests of the premises. “After firing the flare, decorative elements on the ceiling caught fire and the fire began to spread immediately. Very quickly, the room began to fill with acrid smoke, and the emergency exits were difficult to see” – reported the TASS agency.

The perpetrator was probably a 23-year-old soldier who returned from the war in Ukraine, the Russian editorial office of the BBC later reported.

The Baza channel – one of the Russian news channels on Telegram – said the alleged perpetrator who was supposed to detonate the rocket launcher has been arrested. This man – according to the channel – is Stanisław Jonkin, who was at the front in Ukraine and was wounded at the end of August. After his release, he appeared in October at a military unit before a medical board.

The Russian emergency ministry said it had not recently carried out a fire inspection of the premises due to its classification as a “small enterprise”. Since the beginning of the year, there have been at least five other fires in restaurants in Russia, two of which have resulted in deaths In 2009, 156 people died after a fire at the “Lame Horse” nightclub in the city of Perm, which prompted calls for stricter fire regulations in the country .