Reports: Russian nightclub fire death toll reaches 117 as 4 die in hospital

Reports: Russian nightclub fire toll reaches 117

MOSCOW — Russian news agencies are reporting that the death toll from last weekend’s nightclub fire has reached 117 as four people died in hospital overnight.

Three agencies cited the Emergencies Ministry as saying Tuesday that the four died at hospitals in the Ural Mountains city of Perm.

About thirty of the 120 hospitalized remain in critical condition after Saturday morning’s blaze in one of Perm’s nightclubs.

Prosecutors suspect negligence and on Monday charged four people — the club’s co-owner, its manager and entertainment director and the head of a fireworks company whose indoor show sparked the blaze. All are in custody.

Most of the dead were killed by burns or gas inhalation, officials have said, although some were crushed as the crowd tried to flee through a single exit.