To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
A huge fire following an ‘explosion’ has engulfed one of Moscow’s major shopping malls.
The complex includes the original IKEA store in Russia.
Flames tore through the Mega Khimki complex on the Leningradskoye Highway in the northwestern area of the city.
One man, named locally as Sergey Smurov, was reportedly killed in the blaze after he became trapped within an annex of the shopping centre.
It was not immediately clear if the fire was deliberately started.
Some speculated that welding work at the site could have triggered the initial ‘explosion’.
The alarm was raised at 5.58am and emergency services arrived on the scene 20 minutes later.
‘Powerful explosions were heard at the scene’ reported Life news outlet.
Locals said they heard loud bangs before flames took hold of the building (Picture: social media/e2w)
An initial report by TASS official news agency added: ‘An explosion occurred in the OBI hypermarket at the Mega Khimki shopping mall, followed by a collapse.’
As the blaze spread further explosions were heard from the OBI retailer – a DIY giant – with aerosols and paints reportedly igniting in the inferno.
An account on a local online community stated: ‘What was the rumble near Mega?’
‘It was a bang at Mega, there’s fire.’
The blaze could be seen for miles (Picture: social media/e2w)
‘Oh f***, it was shaking as if it was an earthquake.’
‘I woke up from the noise.’
‘My bed on the 8th floor was trembling.’
Most sources said the fire had started in the home improvement OBI outlet, a German-based chain which closed soon after the start of war in Russia, but then re-opened evidently under new non-EU ownership.
The IKEA store near the blaze has been closed since soon after Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
A local man told local press: ‘Everything started burning from the roof, I do not know exactly where the ignition came from.
‘The fire developed very quickly.
‘Literally five minutes later, the entire roof was already caught in flames.
The alarm was raised shortly before 6am (Picture: social media/e2w)
‘And after ten minutes everything developed rapidly, the lower floor was already ablaze.’
Arson is being considered among the versions of the fire at the Mega Khimki shopping mall in Moscow Region, the emergency services told Interfax.
The emergency services initially sent three vehicles and 11 firefighters before realising the scale of the unfolding calamity.
The IKEA section of the vast mall was believed to have been spared, although the flames were still burning.
This was the historic first branch of the Swedish giant in Russia, opening in 2000.
The store’s arrival was seen as a symbol of the new Russia, open to the world and Western ways.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
For more stories like this, check our news page.
One man, named locally as Sergey Smurov, was reportedly killed in the blaze after he became trapped within an annex of the complex.
