2018 Kemerovo fire

On 25 March 2018 at 16:00 local time (9:00 UTC), a fire engulfed the Winter Cherry shopping mall and entertainment complex (Russian: Зимняя вишня, romanized: Zimnyaya vishnya) in Kemerovo, Russia. It killed at least 60 people (more than half of whom were children) according to official statements. The blaze started somewhere on the top floor of the four-story complex, and people were seen jumping from windows to escape it. 100 people were evacuated, and another 20 were rescued. Others claim the number of people killed in the fire is being covered up, and that the real figure runs into the hundreds. According to the Russian authorities, the source of these rumors was a Ukrainian prankster who called the morgue posing as an emergency services officer. In 2018, he uploaded recordings of these calls to his YouTube channel and confirmed the calls during subsequent interviews.