Yerevan City Prosecutor Sevak Hovhannysyan held an operational meeting with the participation of the investigators of the investigation group today, initiated over the explosion at the Surmalu mall, which claimed numerous lives, as well as prosecutors of the prosecution group, overseeing the legality of the preliminary investigation.

The RA Prosecutor General's Office press service informed NEWS.am that during the meeting, the progress and interim results of the criminal proceedings were discussed. Based on the information about the operational situation and the results of the discussion, the prosecutor assigned specific tasks regarding the main directions of the investigation, urgent evidentiary and other actions and their scope.

Within the frames of the initiated proceedings the necessary actions are carried out for finding out all the circumstances of the incident, in particular the reasons of the explosion, the status of the building and its contents.

Today from 10:30 the investigators and experts have started a partial examination of the scene, in which the prosecutors of the prosecution team also took part. Given the fact that cooling and search and rescue operations are still ongoing at the scene, it has not yet been possible to get close to the original source of the fire and explosion to carry out the necessary actions to obtain data on the causes. The latter will be undertaken as soon as the initial activities in the area in question have been completed, the risk of possible collapse has been neutralized, and sufficient safety conditions have been ensured.

About two dozen people, including the victims and owners of the pavilions engaged in commercial activities in the mall, have been questioned in the criminal proceedings. This process continues, in accordance with the planning of the investigation, the representatives of the management, employees of the shopping center Surmalu will also be interviewed.

All the data on the households of businesses operating on the site of the fair is requested, all the video recording devices which are located on the territory adjacent to the scene are confiscated.

Work on the identification and identification of bodies of people removed from under the rubble is ongoing. A number of examinations were appointed.

All versions of the explosion are being considered. In this context all the publications in the press containing details about the causes of the explosion and possible hypotheses are sent by the prosecutor of Yerevan City to the preliminary investigation body to find out their credibility and involve them in the investigation.

The progress of the investigation and the obtained data are periodically reported to the RA Prosecutor General who, in his turn, gives assignments.