Officials revise death toll from Russian nightclub fire upward, to 124

Officials: Russian nightclub fire toll hits 124

MOSCOW — The death toll from a deadly blaze that ripped through a Russian nightclub last weekend has risen to 124, investigators said Wednesday.

The fire at the Lame Horse club, in the Ural Mountains city of Perm, broke out early Saturday when an indoor fireworks display ignited the plastic ceiling, which was decorated with branches. The blaze spread swiftly, and hundreds of revelers tried to flee through a single exit.

Perm’s region government said in a statement it had resigned over the blaze. It was not immediately clear how many people were in the regional government. Several regional fire safety officials have been fired over the blaze.

Russia’s federal Investigative Committee said in a statement posted on its Web site that more than 100 injured people remain hospitalized, many of them in critical condition.

The statement added that said 48 children lost at least one parent in the blaze, while 15 lost both parents.

Four people, including the club owner and a pyrotechnics supplier, have been jailed pending a negligence probe. Another suspect, the man who leased the club from the owner, died Wednesday in a Moscow clinic from injuries sustained in the fire, the statement said.