Russia is marking a day of mourning for the 112 people killed in a nightclub fire in the city of Perm early on Saturday.
Here Sergei, a local businessman, describes the scene of the blaze and the shock of losing three of his friends in the fire.
"Around 15 of us were out celebrating the birth of our friend’s newly-born son on Friday night.
About half of the crowd decided to go to the Lame Horse club and we were thinking of going there too, but some of us were too drunk to move from the pub we were in.
They say drink is bad for you, but not on this occasion. It saved my life.
We were still in the pub when I got a call to say something terrible was happening at the Lame Horse.
We went there at about 0220 local time. I could not see any fire, but there was lots of smoke.
“Many people were walking around without coats screaming the names of their friends”
The building has very small windows located about two metres from the ground. The glass was broken and the windows were black with smoke. Someone in the crowd said it was an accident, not a terrorist attack as first feared, and that fireworks had set the roof on fire.
About 30 to 40 people were lying in the street in front of the club. We couldn’t believe that so many had been killed.
Many people were walking around without coats screaming the names of their friends.
The police were running around trying to stop people inside from leaving, as they probably wanted to write down their names and contacts.
We could not see any of our friends so started phoning around.
Some of our group went to the hospital to see if they could see any of the missing.
It took all day on Saturday to identify the dead, but after trying to get through to our missing friends all day on their phones, they were finally identified at the mortuary later.
Three of them were sitting too far in the corner of the club when the fire broke out and two of them at that table died. One more died in another part of the club.
Three more are still in hospital, with very little chance of survival.
All three who died were men, two in their 30s and one had just turned 40 two days earlier.
I am also in my 30s and this club is popular with people of our age group.
There is a lot of shock and sadness here now.
I am at work today but nobody is working here. I am helping to organise my friends’ funerals and trying to organise things for their families.
There is also anger here. The authorities have already decided who was to blame.
“I am shocked but not surprised by what happened in that club as the fire safety measures there were very bad”
The police have arrested five people and they will hold them up and lay the blame on them. But there is a bigger issue at stake, the safety of the people of this town.
I am shocked but not surprised by what happened in that club as the fire safety measures there were very bad.
There was no second exit, but this is quite common here. There are other clubs in this town that are the same, so it could happen again.
The state and safety department will just cover its own back but everyone knows that bribes and corruption take place in Russia so nothing will really change.
But there is no point in being angry as it won’t bring our friends back.
We will drink in silence and remember them, while thinking that this could happen to any of us at any time.
We will also try to help their families as much as we can at this difficult time.
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