Russian Arctic City's Emergency Chief Detained After Ski Resort Avalanche Kills Three

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th January, 2021) The emergency chief of Russia's Arctic city of Norilsk has been detained after an avalanche at a local ski resort killed a family of three, the investigative committee said on Saturday.

On January 6 evening, an avalanche came down in the area of a mountain skiing resort outside of Norilsk, leaving several buildings buried in snow. The rescuers recovered the bodies of three people � a man, 45, a woman, 38, and their little son. Their teen son was also found on the site and was hospitalized in serious condition. On January 12, the boy was discharged from intensive care.

According to the Russian investigative committee, they have detected an official whose negligence led to the tragedy.

"On suspicion of committing the aforementioned crime, the head of the Department for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations of the Norilsk city administration has been detained," the press release read.

The official is said to have failed to supervise the activities of his subordinates, including their timely uploading of incoming data on weather conditions received from the Russian Emergencies Ministry's crisis center in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

The investigators earlier said that the region's crisis center had alerted the city's emergency service about avalanche danger in mountains to be in place from December 31 to January 11. Duty officers with the service, however, failed to include the warning in their operational reports.

A local court has put Igor Vakulenko, a duty officer with the city's emergency service, on house arrest for two months.