The fire did cause heavy damage to property and goods at the mall.

According to local media, the mall caught fire at 15:00 (local time) on December 2 which then spread across 1,500 sqm of the building, causing 300 sqm of roof to collapse. More than 200 firefighters were deployed to the site, bringing the fire under control by 17:00.

Local police suspect an electrical short circuit might have caused the blaze.

Orenburg city, about 1,500 km southeast of Moscow, has about 300 Vietnamese people doing business, mostly in “the mall of Vietnamese”, according to a Vietnamese ​national living in the city.

The Embassy of Vietnam in Russia has been working with local authorities to support affected Vietnamese there.