Russian club : 13 dead and 9 injures after drunk soldier shoots flare gun inside Russian club: investigation underway
Diplomat Times (Moscow) – At least 13 people died and nine were injured in a Russian nightclub in Kostroma on Friday night after a drunken soldier, most likely a reservist, fired a flare gun inside the club, burning it down and causing the roof of the building to completely collapse.
In video footage posted on social media, people can be heard shouting while what appears to be a large cloud of thick smoke expands outwards from a fire on the ceiling.
Authorities detained a suspect and charged him with “causing death by negligence of two or more persons” and “improper provision of services” in accordance with Russian law, according to an official statement.
The suspect, who fired the flare gun after a mass brawl broke out involving himself and an unknown number of other partygoers in the “Polygon” nightclub, confessed to law enforcement on Saturday, according to Tass.
According to local reports, after a conflict broke out between some of the partygoers it quickly escalated to a mass brawl, during which a yet-unidentified man reached for a hunting flare signal gun and fired it several times inside the premises.
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“The man who fired a flare gun at the Polygon club, which caused a fire, confessed to the crime. He explained that a conflict which broke out in the club was the cause for his actions,” a local law enforcement spokesperson said.
Kostroma and the Polygon club
Military personnel often came to the Polygon club as it was located next to the Russian Military Academy of Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection, as well as a stationed military unit.
Кострома горит. Ночной клуб. pic.twitter.com/EvVLk0IPoC
— Пираты Каймановых (@kajmanovyh) November 5, 2022
Kostroma, a city of about 260,000 inhabitants, lies about 300 kilometers northeast of Moscow, and the fire in the club broke out at around 2 a.m. local time.
It was extinguished only about five and a half hours later, causing the roof to collapse and the place to be almost completely destroyed. About 250 people were evacuated from the building after the fire broke out.
the “Polygon” club is owned by the deputy of the regional duma, Ikhtiyar Mirzoev, according to E1.RU.