SYKTYVKAR. July 12 (Interfax-Northwest) - Investigators probing Monday's shop fire in Ukhta on charges of premeditated murder and deliberate destruction of property through arson have not advanced any other theory of the tragedy, an official with the Komi Republic's Prosecutor's Office Yury Knyazev told Interfax.
Knyazev confirmed the earlier advanced theory of two teenagers being responsible for the shop fire. Two rucksacks and burnt plastic bottles with remains of petroleum products were discovered in the epicenter of the fire, he said.
Knyazev also announced that three of the four owners of the building accommodating the trade center were questioned on July 11.
In total, 38 vendors rented pavilions in the trade center. Preliminary questioning did not reveal any disagreements between the lessors and the lessees. "All of those questioned categorically denied any conflicts between them," Knyazev said.
Sources in the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry's Northwestern regional center told Interfax on Tuesday that the death toll in Monday's Ukhta shop explosion has risen to 24.
"Four more bodies were discovered when the rubble was being cleared away last night," said a spokesman for the regional center.
The fire has not been put out completely, he said.
The Ukhta emergency situations department told Interfax that two of the 24 bodies, discovered at the scene, have not been identified. The seven people injured in the fire remain in a hospital, four of them are in very serious condition. A child was taken to a children's hospital.
The fire, which broke out at about 2 p.m., local time, on Monday, was contained by Monday evening.