The death toll could rise to 400 in Saturday's huge blaze triggered by a fireworks explosion in central Lima, Peruvian Health Minister Luis Solari said on Monday, while visiting a State hospital.
A spokesman of the Peru Fire Department (CBP) said on Sunday night that the number of casualties amounted to 293, and the most of the charred bodies were impossibly to be identified.
Nevertheless, the CBP mentioned the death toll was likely to increase with the pass of hours and as fire fighters keep on searching in the affected buildings.
The blaze, which broke off around 7:30 p.m. on Saturday (0030 GMT Sunday) in a store where home-made fireworks were illegally sold, and took nearly 10 hours to put out, turned a thriving commercial area known as Mesa Redonda, where shoppers had flocked to buy fireworks ahead the New Year's Eve holiday, into a gruesome burned-out shell littered with charred bodies.
It was still unclear what on earth caused the initial explosion.
(Xinhua News Agency January 1, 2002)
