MOSCOW (AP) -- Grieving students and friends piled carnations in front of a blackened Moscow dormitory Wednesday, paying their respects to 37 foreign students killed when a fire raged through the dilapidated building.
The death toll from the blaze rose to 37 when a Peruvian student died in a hospital. The 18-year-old, identified by his embassy as Giancarlo Paitamala Saenz, had suffered multiple fractures and severe internal bleeding from the pre-dawn fire Monday at the dormitory of the Peoples' Friendship University in Moscow, hospital officials said.
Nearly 200 victims remained hospitalized. Some survivors were in grave condition with spinal injuries. Many others broke bones or were poisoned by carbon dioxide from the fire. Many suffered frostbite after fleeing half-naked into the bitter cold and lying in the snow waiting for ambulances.
Russian officials blamed the high number of victims on neglect and the lack of basic safety precautions. They said that the building lacked a fire alarm system and there was no evacuation plan for its residents, many of whom didn't speak Russian.
That meant that many students became aware of the fire only when it was already too late to use a single stairway, which quickly filled with toxic fumes. Many suffocated in their rooms, and others were trapped in the second stairway by a metal door that was permanently locked.
The university called a day of mourning Wednesday, with every class to open with a minute of silence. By noon, about 200 students and friends of the victims stood in front of the building, where red, white and yellow carnations were piled up. Some taped flowers to the trees singed by the blaze.
A third-year medical student who identified himself only by his first name, Sanat, said Wednesday that when the fire broke out, security guards blocked volunteer rescuers from entering the dormitory compound, which is surrounded by a fence. He said that when he reached the scene, three ambulances had arrived, and people who called for more were told that was enough.
``We needed many, many more ambulances,'' he told Associated Press Television News.
Sanat said the locked metal doors were installed in the dormitory following the SARS scare earlier this year. His account could not immediately be confirmed. The dorm served as quarantine quarters for students who had only recently arrived in Russia.
Many students at the university suspect arson, though Interior Ministry officials have said the blaze was sparked by an electrical problem. The students' suspicions were fueled by the speed with which the fire spread, as well as a general atmosphere of fear following repeated street attacks by skinheads in recent years.
But Gabriel Kochafa, an instructor from Benin who heads Russia's Foreign Students' Association, cast doubt on the rumors.
``Yes, foreign students have a problem with skinheads in Russia but I don't believe that anyone would set fire to the dormitory,'' he said.
The day of the fire, Education Minister Vladimir Filippov also raised the possibility of arson. But many considered his comments an attempt to deflect criticism over the building's state - he insisted the building was equipped with all fire safety features, and police contradicted his claim that one student had been held for questioning.
Aside from the lack of fire alarms, the dorm had other fire hazards. Many students use electric heaters for warmth, and since many foreign students sell goods from their home countries to make money, the already cramped dorms are often packed with bags and bundles.
Once a showpiece of Soviet patronage of the Third World, receiving generous state subsidies, the university fell into disrepair with the 1991 fall of communism.
Students said that in addition to Peru, the dead and injured included citizens of China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Tahiti, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Angola, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Kazakhstan, the Dominican Republic, Lebanon and Malaysia. China's government said Wednesday that seven of its citizens had been killed, including a 51-year-old professor, and 43 had been injured.
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