HUGE blaze engulfs shopping mall in Vladivostok, Russia (VIDEOS)

The largest shopping center in Vladivostok has gone up in flames. Emergency services are trying to put out the fire, while the shocked residents of the largest city in Russia’s Far East are posting images on social media.

It is unclear how many people may have been inside the mall when it caught fire, in the early hours of Saturday local time. There were no reports of casualties.

The fire appears to have broken out in one of the stores, and quickly spread to the rest of the facility, affecting over 1,000 square meters (10,700 square feet) of space, according to local authorities.

News of the Vladivostok fire comes on the heels of a massive blaze that gutted the main shopping center in the Chechen capital of Grozny on Thursday. The Grand Park mall took twelve fire trucks and about 50 emergency personnel to contain.

Russians are still traumatized by the March 2018 conflagration at the Zimnaya Vishnya mall in the central Siberan city of Kemerovo, where 64 people – including 41 children – perished. Investigators later found that the emergency doors inside the converted factory were locked, preventing the evacuation and contributing to deaths from smoke inhalation. 

Vladivostok is a city of some 600,000 residents and the capital of Primorsky region, on the shores of the Sea of Japan. It is the home to Russia’s Pacific Fleet.

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