Translated material
A suspect in the arson of the Lenta hypermarket was detained in Tomsk. The fire area exceeded five thousand square meters. m
In Tomsk, the police detained a local resident suspected of setting fire to the Lenta hypermarket. This was reported by the press service of the regional Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The suspect is 33 years old. The police noted that "he could not clearly explain the reasons for his act."
Kommersant, citing Lenta , writes that the arson in the pyrotechnics department was committed by an employee of a hypermarket contracting organization who worked on the trading floor. According to the publication, the man confessed to the crime.
The fire started at Lenta on Elizarovyh Street in Tomsk around 15:00 local time (11:00 Moscow time). The press service of the main department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations in the Tomsk region reported that the fire covered the entire area of the building - 5200 square meters, the roof and part of the walls collapsed on an area of 3.5 thousand square meters. The Ministry of Emergency Situations noted that the fire was assigned the fourth and highest rank of complexity for the region.
About 200 people managed to evacuate from the building, no casualties were reported. By 18:49 (14:49 Moscow time) the fire was localized.
An employee of the store told Vtomske.ru that in the pyrotechnics department, “someone blew up some kind of bomb.” “From this it all started, and went further, upstairs, where there is a large amount of pyrotechnics,” she shared.
The prosecutor's office launched an investigation into the fire.
The hypermarket opened in 2016. Its total area is 9400 sq. m. The construction of the facility, as noted by "Interfax", was accompanied by a conflict with the mayor's office of Tomsk.