13 individuals had been killed when a hearth tore by a crowded nightclub within the Russian metropolis of Kostroma within the early hours of Saturday, officers mentioned.

The blaze broke out at about 2:30am in Polygon — an leisure venue with a bar, restaurant and enormous dance ground — after a person shot a flare gun on the ceiling, the TASS information company mentioned.

“In a short time the room started to fill with acrid smoke and the evacuation exits had been troublesome to see. There was pushing and panic,” the company reported, citing an eyewitness in Kostroma, which lies some 300 kilometres northeast of Moscow.

In video footage posted on social media, individuals may be heard shouting whereas what seems to be a big cloud of thick smoke expands outwards from a hearth on the ceiling.

Rescuers mentioned 250 individuals had been evacuated from the constructing.

“The flames had been horrible, burning on a number of sides directly,” mentioned one other witness.

Video shared by investigators confirmed firefighters spraying water on the smouldering, collapsed roof of the constructing. In keeping with rescuers, the hearth coated an space of three,500 sq. metres and took about 5 hours to place out.

A 23-year-old man has been detained in reference to the incident, investigators mentioned.

Prosecutors have additionally launched an investigation into the institution itself, after discovering that quite a lot of the evacuation exits had been blocked.

Native officers declared Monday a day of mourning.

In 2009, 156 individuals had been killed after a hearth broke out on the Lame Horse nightclub within the metropolis of Perm, sparking requires more durable fireplace security legal guidelines in a rustic the place lethal blazes occur frequently.