An inquiry has been opened after 25 people, nearly all women, died in a fierce fire at a shopping centre in the northwest Russian city of Ukhta.
Police investigating yesterday's fire said they were treating the
case as one of murder and arson.
The dead included 23 women, one man, and a seven-month-old boy who died in intensive care in hospital. About another six are in intensive care, four of them in a critical condition.
Firefighters took much of the night to put out the blaze in the two-storey brick building.
Interfax news agency quoted officials saying that more bodies might be found in the ruins.
Initial reports from Ukhta, around 1,200km northeast of Moscow, had suggested that an exploding gas canister started the fire.
