THREE sisters were killed as a fire ripped through a shopping centre -forcing panicked customers to leap from windows to escape.

Shoppers leapt from heights of up to 35ft to flee the inferno, which also killed a fourth woman and injured at least five others.

The fire broke out at a shopping centre in Sterlitamak, Russia

Smoke billowed from the windows

Shopping centre inferno victim Victoria, 33

Trapped shoppers begged people on the street below to help them as black smoke billowed from the shopping complex in Russia.

Footage from the scene shows shoppers jumping from windows into outstretched sheets held by locals.

Sisters Elena Egorova, 45, Viktoria Samigullina, 34, and Elizaveta Musina, 29, were among those killed in the blaze.

They were shopping for a birthday present for their mum when they were caught in the flames.

Elizaveta Musina, 29, was shopping with her sisters

Elena Egorova, 45, also died

A truck driver moved his vehicle under a 25ft-high window, to allow two women to clamber down a ladder to safety.

“I heard cries for help seconds after parking to unload goods at a nearby shop,” he said.

“There were torchlights in the third-floor windows.”

“Firefighters had not arrived”.

A 17-year-old girl was left in a coma after she suffered severe carbon monoxide poisoning and fractures, while helping others to escape.

A 35-year-old woman was also in a coma after suffering severe smoke inhalation.

Another 17 people were evacuated from the shopping centre.

One witness described how a woman clambering down the ladder on top of the truck stumbled and fell onto a man.

“It was horrific. A woman fell from a ladder onto a man right in front of me,” they said.

Those on the scene said there was a major delay in firefighters arriving at the scene.

A chronic lack of firefighters stemming from Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is speculated to have contributed to the delay.

Russia‘s federal fire service is about 203,750 personnel short of the number it needs to operate effectively, the country’s Emergency Situations Ministry said.

Minister Alexander Kurenkov said the units were only staffed to 65.5 per cent of the level needed.

It’s understood firefighters from the region have been recruited to the Ukraine frontline.

Poor pay has also contributed to the shortage.

An investigation is underway to establish the cause of the blaze.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/17043216/three-sisters-die-fire-shopping-centre-customers-jump/