Ukraine: Parents protest against deaths at children’s camp
Image copyright AFP Image caption One of the camp’s dormitory blocks was completely decimated by the fire
Angry parents have protested outside the town hall in Ukraine’s resort city of Odessa over the deaths of two girls in a fire at a children’s camp.
Another child remains missing after the blaze broke out overnight inside a dormitory at Victoria holiday camp.
Ukrainian PM Volodymyr Groysman called it a “tragedy” saying those responsible would face tough punishment.
On the shores of the Black Sea, the camp is used by authorities to offer underprivileged children holidays.
Footage posted by local journalists on social media showed an angry crowd – said to be parents of the children – gathered outside the town hall in Odessa on Saturday.
One video showed a group of people running away from the building, many of them coughing. According to Dumskaya website (in Ukrainian), police used tear gas to disperse the crowd.
The news site said they had been trying to confront the mayor.
Children were sleeping in the camp’s wooden two-storey building when the fire began overnight on Friday.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Regional authorities have declared a day of mourning Image copyright AFP Image caption Many children were sleeping when the fire broke out
Once firefighters managed to extinguish the fire, they discovered three girls aged from 8-12 were missing, AFP news agency reports.
Emergency services said “fragments of two burned children’s bodies were found” as debris was cleared, the news agency added.
The search for a third missing child is continuing, with two other children hospitalised.
Police have reportedly opened a criminal case into the fire, while the regional authorities declared a day of mourning.
