Three people were killed Friday in a gas explosion at a mine in the Russian region of Siberia, prosecutors said.

Russian authorities have declared a state of emergency after more than 20,000 tonnes of diesel fuel seeped into a Siberian river sparking concerns from environmentalists.

A Russian soldier on Friday opened fire on troops at a Siberian military base, killing eight and injuring two, officials said, blaming the attack on a possible "nervous breakdown".

Large fires are an annual occurrence in Siberia, but this summer smoke has enveloped some of its largest cities, including Krasnoyarsk, and locals are angry at what they perceive as government inaction.

Gigantic forest fires have regularly raged through the vast expanses of Russia's Siberia, but the magnitude of this year's blazes has reached an exceptional level with fears of a long-term impact on the environment.

Eighteen people were killed in a helicopter crash in the Krasnoyarsk region in Siberia on Saturday, the aviation watchdog and emergency services said.

President Vladimir Putin flew to the scene in the Siberian city of Kemerovo two days after the tragedy and laid roses at a makeshift memorial.

At least 64 people were killed by a fire which engulfed a busy shopping mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, Russian investigators said on Monday, and some of the dead were children.

Investigators said the boy, thought to be 15 or 16, carried out the attack in a class of children aged around 12 or 13 in the city of Ulan-Ude near the Mongolian border.

Rejecting the Congress allegations of irregularities in the Rafale fighter jet deal, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman yesterday said the government had to go for emergency procurement, adding it was cheaper than under an earlier unconcluded deal.

In the shadow of charred Grenfell Tower, Londoners are preparing decorations for this weekend’s Notting Hill Carnival to commemorate the victims of the fire that killed at least 80 people.

A much-awaited FIFA report on the race to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups makes no suggestion that Russia or Qatar should lose the right to stage the tournaments.