Five killed after heating pipe in Russian hotel bursts

Steam from a Russian hotel after a hot water pipe bursts.
Steam from a Russian hotel after a hot water pipe bursts. Photo credit: Russian Emergencies Ministry/Reuters

A heating pipe in a Russian hotel burst on Monday, flooding rooms with boiling water that killed five people and left six others injured. 

All of the victims, one a child, were staying at the nine-room hotel when the pipe exploded, authorities said.   

The hotel was located in the basement of a residential building in the central city of Perm. 

The plumbing failure caused 20 buildings, including a school, a hospital and a kindergarten to be without heat in the middle of winter. 

The Guardian reports investigators have opened a criminal inquiry into the alleged provision of dangerous services to consumers.

The Russian Parliament might consider a ban on having hotels or hostels in the basements of residential buildings, Russian lawmaker Oleg Melnichenko told TIME

"Hostels shouldn't be open in basements, where all pipelines are located," Melnichenko said.