MOSCOW (Reuters) - At least 12 people have died after a shopping centre caught fire in the Russian city of Kazan, Interfax news agency cited the head of the regional emergencies ministry as saying on Friday.
The blaze broke out on Wednesday in a first-storey cafe before the building collapsed, trapping 25 people under the rubble, according to local media reports.
Igor Panshin, head of the regional emergencies ministry, was quoted by Interfax as saying that nine of the victims had been identified.
Emergency workers continued to clear away debris on Friday in Kazan, the capital of Russia's Tatarstan region about 500 miles (800 kilometres)east of Moscow.
Panshin previously said that as many as 25 people may have been killed when the shopping centre collapsed.
"There may be up to 25 people under the rubble of the burnt-out shopping centre in Kazan. No one among them is alive," Panshin told Interfax on Thursday.
According to the regional emergencies ministry, foreign citizens from Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have been injured.
(Reporting by Jack Stubbs; Editing by Lidia Kelly and Toby Chopra)
