A family bring flowers and a toy during a day of mourning for the victims of Sunday's fire in a shopping mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, in Manezhnaya square, near the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, March 28, 2018. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)
Republished April 01, 2018 - 5:45 AM
Original Publication Date April 01, 2018 - 3:01 AM
MOSCOW - The Kremlin says the governor of the Siberian region where a shopping centre fire killed 64 people has resigned.
The statement Sunday said Aman Tuleyev had offered his resignation and that it was accepted by President Vladimir Putin. Tuleyev had headed the Kemerovo region for more than 20 years.
A March 25 fire at a four-story shopping mall in the regional capital, also called Kemerovo, prompted thousands of people to demonstrate last week, calling for regional officials' resignations and alleging widespread corruption and incompetency.
Seven people have been arrested in the case, including the woman who headed the local building inspection agency when the mall was constructed. Fire survivors say the mall's fire alarm system did not work during the blaze.
The dead included 41 children.
News from © The Associated Press, 2018