More than 100 people are reported to have been killed and 60 others injured after a blast ripped through a nightclub in Perm, a Russian city located near the Ural mountains, police officials have said.
The explosion occurred in the Lame Horse bar in the centre of Perm where some 200 people were partying early on Saturday, ITAR-TASS news agency quoted a local police as saying.
Law enforcement officials said that the blast had been caused by firecrackers and ruled out the possibility it was due to a terrorist act.
"The accident was due to a violation of instructions when launching fireworks," Vladimir Markin, a senior judicial official, was quoted as saying by Interfax.
"We are not talking about a terrorist attack; we are talking about a failure to observe fire regulations," ITAR-TASS news agency quoted a spokesman for the Prosecutor-General's main investigative unit as saying.
Some 60 people were taken to a hospital, the regional emergency ministry official said as quoted by state-run news agency RIA Novosti.
A police source told RIA Novosti that most victims succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning in the crush as the panicked crowd rushed to escape.
"The blast went off at 23:15 Moscow time (20:15 GMT)," RIA quoted the emergencies ministry as saying.
The blast follows a deadly train bombing last week, which killed 26 and injured over 100 on a luxury train travelling between Moscow and St Petersburg, for which Chechen armed groups claimed responsibility.
Perm, the sixth largest city in Russia, has a population of 1.2 million people.
Source: agencies
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