Fire in Moscow shopping mall kills 1 person, injures 6

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian officials say a fire in a Moscow shopping center has killed one person and injured six.

Ilya Denisov, head of the Emergency Situations Ministry’s Moscow branch, said the fire Wednesday at a shopping center in an eastern Moscow district killed an employee and left six firefighters injured. Denisov said the employee went in the opposite direction from the emergency exit and suffocated.

Authorities did not give the cause but said the fire started in a storage area on the top floor.

The fire happened just a week after a fire in a Siberian shopping mall claimed 64 lives, shocking the nation.

Authorities vowed to step up fire safety, and stores and offices across Russia began conducting fire drills and checking fire-fighting equipment.