A blaze sparked by an indoor firework show ripped through a crowded Russian nightclub, killing at least 102 and injuring 134 as revellers stampeded for the exits, the Emergencies Ministry said.
The firework show went disastrously wrong at about 11:15 p.m. (2015 GMT) on Friday, filling the Lame Horse nightclub in the city of Perm, 1,150 km (720 miles) east of Moscow, with toxic smoke and sowing panic among clubbers.
"We have registered 102 dead and 134 injured," Igor Orlov, security minister of the Perm Region, told Russia's Vesti-24 television on Saturday. Seventy-nine are in a serious condition.
Perm Emergencies Minister Oleg Popov said 21 people were in a critical condition, having suffered from smoke intoxication, head injuries and inhalation burns. Russian television said the first group of the injured had been sent to Moscow by plane.
A Reuters witness said dozens of charred bodies were piled on the pavement outside the club as medics moved the injured into ambulances. Blood-covered women in evening clothes lay on stretchers as scores of policemen swarmed around.
Video footage obtained by Reuters featured a merry crowd celebrating the club's eighth anniversary, with a show presenter announcing all of a sudden: "Ladies and gentlemen, we are on fire. Leave the hall. Line up in a queue (to exit)."
Then the camera moved to show fire spreading fast along the ceiling covered in reeds. Many revellers slowly moved to a narrow exit -- some still sipping cocktails and smoking.
A few moments later, a stampede broke out as heavy smoke quickly filled the hall and the crowd rushed headlong, trying to escape through narrow doors.
Motionless bodies covered in soot and blood -- some half-dressed -- lay scattered around on the snow-covered pavement outside the club.
A stray firework sparked the fire, officials said. Wicker coverings on the walls of the club burst into flames, prompting panic. More than 200 people were in the club at the time.
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The fire follows a bombing last Friday which killed 26 and injured more than 100 on a train travelling between Moscow and St Petersburg, for which Chechen Islamist militants claimed responsibility.
That blast stoked fears that Russia could face a nationwide bombing campaign, but Russian officials played down any links between the train attack and Friday's nightclub disaster.
"We are not talking about a terrorist attack," Oleg Chirkunov, the Perm region's governor, told Vesti-24 television.
Russia's domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service, said they found no trace of explosives at the scene and detectives said they did not suspect a bomb attack.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the formation of a government commission to deal with the incident. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sent Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu, Health Minister Tatyana Golikova and Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev to the scene to coordinate rescue efforts.
The Prosecutor General's main detective unit said it had opened a criminal case over suspected breaches of safety regulations at the club.
"I've just spoken to a friend who was there," said a posting on popular Internet forum www.teron.ru, which serves Perm, a city of 1.2 million near the Ural mountains. "He says there was no blast, everything flared up from the fireworks. Many people were cut off from the exit and suffocated as a result."
Officials have in the past blamed poor fire safety standards for high death tolls in fires at orphanages, hospitals and other institutions, but Friday's fire was one of Russia's most deadly in recent years.