11:23am UK, Sunday December 06, 2009

Adam Arnold, Sky News Online

Russians are carrying out the grim task of identifying victims of a nightclub fire as the death toll rises to 112.

A friend of one of the victims, Timur Prokofiev, cries during his funeral

People gathered at the central morgue in the city of Perm on a bitterly cold day to confirm who was killed in Friday night’s blaze.

Others have been laying flowers and lighting candles outside the Lame Horse club where the tragedy happened.

The first funerals have taken place and the central cathedral in Perm, 720 miles north-east of Moscow, is holding an all-day memorial service.

The deadly blaze has been blamed on a fireworks show, where sparks set alight wicker coverings on the walls and ceiling of the club, eyewitnesses said.

A stampede then broke out as more than 200 guests rushed towards a single narrow exit.

Some were killed in the crush while many others died of smoke inhalation.

“It was monstrous, young people died there, the future of Russia,” said Sergei Prokofiev, an 18 year-old student and a stepbrother of one of the victims.

Police officers outside the Lame Horse nightclub

Around 130 were taken to hospital, and many remain in a critical condition after suffering serious burns.

About 80 of the victims were flown to Moscow, St Petersburg and Chelyabinsk for medical treatment.

A national day of mourning will take place in Russia on Monday, with entertainment events and television programmes cancelled.

Authorities have accused club managers of ignoring repeated orders to comply with safety standards.

The country’s president Dmitry Medvedev condemned them as without “brains nor conscience”.

He added: “This is not a premeditated murder, but this does not lessen the gravity of the crime.”

Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Russian Prosecutor General’s Investigative Committee, said a criminal case has been opened into the cause of the blaze.