At least 109 people have been killed and more than 130 others injured as fire ripped through a nightclub in Russia’s Urals city of Perm late on Friday.

Rescuers work at the site after a blast in the city of Perm, Russia, Dec. 5, 2009. (Xinhua/RIA Novosti)

Some 230 people, most of them the club’s employees and their relatives, attended the party.

Xinhua correspondents reporting from the scene said the fire had been completely extinguished and all the bodies of the victims had been removed from the cordoned-off building, located in downtown Perm.

Emergency workers and prosecutors were cleaning up the site, where many local people have been gathering and scores of ambulances and emergency vehicles were parked.

Local residents told Xinhua the nightclub was a famous spot where local people often dined or danced. They said that, when they arrived at the site on Saturday morning, dozens of rescuers were moving bodies out of the club, some of which had been burned black.

One man said, “I just wonder who could have designed such a building,” referring to the nightclub’s small windows and single exit.

Local people have placed flowers along the entrance of a small garden opposite the club building.

Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Investigative Committee at the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said: “Ninety-eight people died on the spot and 11 others in hospital.”

The spokesman said earlier that most of the victims died of burns and carbon monoxide poisoning, adding that a stampede occurred at the exit.

So far 68 bodies have been identified, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Health and Social Development Minister Tatyana Golikova, who flew to the scene along with Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu and Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev, told President Dmitry Medvedev in a video conference that most of the injured suffered from severe burns covering more than 50 percent of their bodies.

“Unfortunately, the burns are quite serious… There are 130 people in hospital, of whom 88 are in a serious condition,” Golikova said.

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has ordered prosecutors across the country “to immediately organize, in cooperation with the local departments of the Russian emergencies ministry and other supervisory bodies, a range of measures to ensure the safetyof citizens at mass gathering venues.”

The national inspections, with a deadline of Dec. 15, will focus on fire safety, including fireworks storage and use, as well as adequate fire exits. Anyone who had been found breaching fire safety laws may face criminal charges, said the Office in a statement.

The “Lame Horse” nightclub had previously been fined twice for breaching fire safety regulations, said Shoigu when briefing Medvedev.

“The fire broke out in a place where pyrotechnics should not have been used under any circumstances,” the RIA Novosti news agency quoted the minister as saying.

A regional security official was earlier quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying that “banks of lights were installed on the stage and firecrackers were launched. One of themhit the suspended ceiling, setting everything on fire right away.”

“A stampede and panic began. Twenty-one people sought medical assistance for craniocerebral injuries,” the official said.

Russian TV channels have broadcast footage filmed with a digital camera, showing how the flames spread over the ceiling, which was decorated with twigs.

An eyewitness said heavy smoke was gushing up immediately after the strong blaze, producing a terrifying smell.

“All the windows were broken, people carried young girls in their arms, covered in burns,” she said. “I will remember it my whole life.”

The nightclub, which covers an area of 500 square meters, was almost completely destroyed by the fire.

Medvedev accused the bosses of the nightclub of “having no brains and no conscience” and called for harsh punishments.

Club owner Anatoly Zak and manager Svetlana Yefremova have been arrested and could face jail terms of up to seven years. Another three people have also been detained, according to the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office.

The Russian authorities earlier ruled out terrorist attacks as a possible cause of the incident, saying bomb experts found no evidence of explosive devices.

Medvedev has declared a national day of mourning for the victims on Dec. 7, when Russian national flags will be flown at half mast and TV, radio stations and cultural establishments will be required to cancel all entertainment events.

The regional government of Perm said the families of the victims would receive 100,000 rubles (about 3,400 U.S. dollars) in compensation.

The blast occurred exactly a week after a luxury train traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg was derailed by a homemade bomb equivalent to 7 kg of TNT. The derailment was being investigated as a terrorist attack, the worst outside the North Caucasus in five years.

Perm, a city on the Kama River, some 1,200 km east of Moscow, is the capital of Russia’s Perm region.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet