Moscow nightclub blaze kills 10

MOSCOW - Ten people died when a "fire show" in a ground-floor nightclub in central Moscow apparently went wrong, engulfing the room with smoke, officials said Sunday.

"As a result of the fire, 10 people, including a Bulgarian national, died and we are working on their identification," the city's deputy prosecutor Vladimir Poneversky was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency.

A spokesman for the emergency situations ministry said a 20-year-old barman had told rescue workers that the blaze started when a nightly "fire show" being performed by a waiter at the club using spirits went wrong.

"The waiter's clothing caught fire, after which the flame spread to a five-litre container with spirits and then the stage caught fire," the spokesman, Yevgeny Bobylev, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

Poneversky said the fire had started near the bar and quickly engulfed the club with carbon monoxide, killing people on the spot. Moscow prosecutors have launched an investigation into fire safety at the club.

Agence France-Presse