Second Russian shopping mall mysteriously destroyed by fire raising suspicions of sabotage

Moscow: A new inferno at a Russian shopping mall on Monday has raised suspicions of coordinated sabotage attacks, the media reported.

StroyPark Mall in Balashikha, to the east of Moscow, was filmed in flames early Monday as thick black smoke streamed into the sky, the Daily Mail reported.

It comes after another fire at the Mega shopping centre in Khimki, also near Moscow and 30 miles from Balashikha, caused explosions which killed one person.

One Telegram channel asked: ‘Fires at Russian shopping centres seem to be breaking out really often these days. Are these sabotage… or?’

The Russian emergencies ministry has officially blamed Monday’s blaze on building materials catching fire inside a construction supplies store, Daily Mail reported.

Ministers did not say how the materials had caught light.

The first last week was also focused around a construction store, with canisters of gas thought to be behind the blasts.

Building material caught fire for unexplained reasons, according to the Russian emergencies’ ministry.

Other recent fires have hit the Mikoyanovsky meat factory, in Moscow, and the Pushkin national art gallery in the centre of the Russian capital.

Bne IntelliNews had already said the spate of Moscow fires was ‘raising suspicions of arson attacks by Ukrainian saboteurs’, the Daily Mail reported.

There is, however, no suggestion these fires are the result of aerial attacks, but there is a suspicion that sabotage may be behind some of them.

Some observers have disputed the official version that the Khimki fire was the result of a welding accident.

They pointed to reports of a giant explosion, followed by the intense fire, Daily Mail reported.