- The flames are controlled in an area of ​​7,000 square meters.

At least one dead in a fire in a shopping center on the outskirts of Moscow.

At least one dead in a fire in a shopping center on the outskirts of Moscow

At least one person died in a fire that broke out this Friday in the large MEGA-Khimki shopping center, located on the outskirts of Moscow, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations reported. It is a security guard.

The incident originated in a construction materials supermarket that was being remodeled and where welding work was being carried out. "The workers could not put out the flames and left the building," an emergency source was quoted as saying by the official TASS news agency.

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The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation will investigate the causes of the fire in the Mega Khimki shopping center near Moscow, as explained in a report collected by the Russian news agency Interfax.

"A criminal case has been opened on the fact of a large fire that occurred on the territory of a shopping center (Article 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - the performance of work or the provision of services that do not meet the requirements of security)," the report says.

One of the hypotheses being considered is that it has been provoked. The emergency services suspect a deliberate act, according to AFP advances on his Twitter account.

Interfax also collects that the emergency services are considering that the fire is caused or has been caused by a short circuit in the electrical network. The damage can amount to 20-30 billion rubles, about 400,000 euros.

Controlled the flames

According to Sergey Poletykin, head of the department of the Russian Emergencies Ministry for the Moscow region, the first firefighting teams arrived at the scene of the incident four minutes after the fire alarm was triggered.

141 firefighters and 47 fire trucks moved to the place. Two and a half hours after the outbreak of the fire, which began when the shopping center had not yet opened to the public, the firefighters managed to control the fire in an area of ​​7,000 square meters.

According to the first data, the flames have not spread to other establishments in MEGA-Khimki, one of the largest shopping centers in Russia, which occupies an area of ​​175,000 square meters.

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