KEMEROVO, Russia (CNN) - A father of a mall fire victim talked to thousands of protesters, describing his final conversation with his daughter, who perished in a mall fire on Sunday.
Many are calling for the authorities to be held responsible for the fire response at Winter Cherry mall in Kemerovo that killed 64, including dozens of children.
A father of a victim, whose remarks were translated from Russian, said he spoke to his daughter on the phone before she died:
"I was talking to my daughter on the phone. I asked her where she was.
She cried: 'I'm here, dad.'
I told her to lie down on the floor and breathe. 'Breathe and don't die,' I told her.
I ran there, but they grabbed me by my feet and dragged me back.
I cried: 'You are bastards!'
I was crying to my daughter.
She said. 'Dad, I love you. I'm suffocating, I'm fainting.'"
Fire alarms were silent and many doors were locked, eyewitnesses said.
Many children who died were reportedly trapped inside a locked theater, the Associated Press reported.
Copyright 2018 CNN. All rights reserved. Raycom News Network contributed to this report.
