Russia hotel fire: Two dead after blaze engulfs 10-storey building in Rostov on Don

Children jump from windows to escape blaze

Harry Cockburn
Friday 22 September 2017 11:33 BST
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The cladding on the building was made of “very flammable material containing toxic elements”, a government official said
The cladding on the building was made of “very flammable material containing toxic elements”, a government official said

A huge fire at a 10-storey hotel in Russia has left two people dead and witnesses reported children jumping from windows to escape.

The fire broke out at the Torn hotel in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia on Wednesday afternoon, tearing through the building and setting fire to cars nearby.

Rescue workers have reportedly found the bodies of a man and a woman understood to be members of the hotel’s staff.

A government official told Russian news agency TASS said: “A corpse of a man was found in the fire zone in the hotel room.

“One of the deceased is a man of 30. The second is a woman, both are employees of the hotel.”

Witnesses saw children jumping from the hotel’s windows, where they were caught by people on the ground.

“Five children – girls – jumped from the second floor, some guys were catching them,” a witness told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

One man said he had helped throw stones at a window to break it, and then the children “started to jump, and we caught them”, he said in a BBC report.

Over 400 people, including 61 children were evacuated from the three star hotel block.

Local officials said 50 firefighters and 19 fire engines were sent to tackle the blaze.

Government official Evgeny Kondratiev told reporters the face of building was made of “very flammable material containing toxic elements”.

This reportedly “increased the danger of the fire spreading to the roof”.

The blaze left the building charred and black from top to bottom.

It follows another huge fire in Rostov-on-Don last month which destroyed 123 residential buildings and left one man dead.

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