At least eight children were injured Friday after the gas used in a science demonstration at a mall in Siberia ignited an explosion.
The accident occurred in the city of Irkutsk as demonstrators were showing a group of kids, reportedly between the ages of five and 13, how fireworks function as part of the mall’s “Children’s Day” events.
“During the show, a flammable gas outburst hit the gas burner and ignited for a short time,” investigators said in a statement posted online.
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Security cameras inside the closed room where the demonstration was held captured a massive fireball eruption, sending spectators running for the exits.
The video also appears to show one of the demonstrators run into an adjacent room and remove his shirt over fears it was on fire.
Investigators confirmed several children were transported to hospital, including a 10-year-old boy who was placed in intensive care with second-degree burns.
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Police have arrested the technical director of the company that produced the science show pending an investigation into violations of safety standards.
The incident comes after 64 people, most of them children, were killed in a mall fire in March.
Investigators found the fire, one of the deadliest in Russia since the break-up of the Soviet Union, swept through the upper floors of the “Winter Cherry” shopping center in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, after a security guard had turned off the public address system and exits had been illegally blocked.
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