Death Toll at 29 in Police Facility Fire
The death toll in a fire that gutted a regional police headquarters in southern Russia rose to 29, and police were searching for 42 people still missing, news reports said. The fire started Wednesday on the third floor of the six-story Interior Ministry building in Samara. Firefighters put out the blaze Thursday. Investigators initially said they believed that the fire was caused by an electrical short circuit, the Itar-Tass news agency reported. But Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin, whose department recently began a crackdown on organized crime in the region, said investigators were looking into the possibility that the fire was deliberately set.
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