Captured in the image above is the horrific moment an 11-year-old boy was forced to hurl himself out of burning building to escape a blaze thought to have killed his entire family.
Little Sergey Moskalenko jumped for his life from an open window as the inferno tore through a Russian shopping mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo.
At least 64 people have been killed, with nearly a dozen children thought to be missing.
The gigantic fire is reported to have broken out in the cinema complex of the four-storey Winter Cherry shopping centre.
Firefighters held out a rug to break Sergey’s fall but he was rushed to hospital with critical injuries after hitting a door on his way down.
Horrified witnesses told how those inside jumped out of windows several storeys up to escape the flames, with unconfirmed reports suggesting at least 96 bodies have been found in the mall.
Initial reports by officials said the fire was being treated as arson and was believed to have started in the “trampoline room of a children’s zone”.
Deputy Governor Vladimir Chernov told local media a “preliminary theory is that one of the children had a cigarette lighter”.
He said the fire in the foamed trampoline pool would have “flared up like gunpowder”.
Young Viktoria Pochankona, 12, among the missing, phoned her aunt Evgenia during the blaze and said: “Everything is burning. The doors are blocked. I can’t go out, I can’t breathe.”
Evgenia claimed almost all of her niece’s classmates were at the cinema, including two to three parents and a teacher.
A distraught mum said all five of her children were in the complex, and are still feared missing.
Witnesses claim there was no fire alarm, after the fire broke out. Some 15 bodies were found near a locked emergency exit. Reports said 43 people were injured.
Shopper Ivan, who escaped with his daughter, said: “I heard people running and then saw flames. As we rushed out of the building, I saw a teenager falling out of a window. There was no fire alarm.”
Rescuers were trawling through the mall looking for survivors after the blaze which lasted for five hours tore the cinema ceiling apart and wiped out the petting zoo.
Russia’s Investigative Committee spokesperson said: “Four child corpses have been found in a nursery during the rescue operations.”
Social media footage captured smoke billowing from the shopping centre windows as firemen fought to tame the blaze.
Reports of the victims’ whereabouts remain unclear as one person claimed people had locked themselves inside a toilet, covering the gaps around doors with wet towels.
Evgeny Videman, director of the petting zoo said he believed all the animals have died.
He added: “There were no people left in the zoo. I just closed the doors. It was physically impossible to get the animals out.”
A week after his election win, the tragedy may come as a severe blow to Putin who faces a mounting diplomatic crisis over the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal.
Putin ordered his emergencies minister Vladimir Puchkov to fly to Kemerovo, and take charge of the disaster.
Firefighters in the early hours of Monday, local time, still struggled to reach the fourth floor of the mall as temperatures were still “too high”.
Putin sent his “heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of the victims and wishes for a speedy recovery to the injured.”
Source: The Sun UK
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