Russia’s most tragic boy today burst into tears as he was told that his parents and sister died the shopping mall blaze in Siberia.
Sergei Moskalenko, 11, was pushed out of a window by his father Evgeny, 35, in his last act before being burned alive.
The boy’s mother and little sister were died beside him six days ago.
Sergei suffered multiple fractures but miraculously survived his 40 ft fall from the fourth floor – despite hitting an air conditioning duct and a door awning before being caught in rug held by a group of men.
Sergei Moskalenko, pictured lying in a hospital bed, miraculously survived the horror blaze at the shopping mall
The tragic 11-year-old was pushed out of a burning window by his father Evgency, 25, in his last act before being burned alive
Sergei suffered multiple fractures and was taken to hospital. He was today told that he was an orphan after both his parents were killed along with his younger sister, Ksenia
His relatives and counsellors had dreaded telling him the grim news, but they sat together at his hospital bedside to inform him of the worst news he could face, she admitted
His horrific fall, caught on video flashed around the globe, symbolised the appalling Kemerovo inferno which is being blamed on a succession of safety blunders.
But Sergei’s dreadful fate has opened the hearts of Russians who have promised to help him.
The boy burst into tears on being told his father, mother Olesya, 30, and sister Ksenia, four, had died, said psychiatrist Anna Portnova.
His relatives and counsellors had dreaded telling him the grim news, but they sat together at his hospital bedside to inform him of the worst news he could face, she admitted.
The boy burst into tears on being told his father, mother Olesya, 30, and sister Ksenia, four, had died, said psychiatrist Anna Portnova
Sergei, seen left and right, with his sister, managed to escape with his life. But a total 64 people were killed in the appalling blaze, 41 of them children
The latest official death toll from the Kemerovo inferno is 64 with 47 injured and many still unaccounted for
His horrific fall, caught on video flashed around the globe, symbolised the appalling Kemerovo inferno which is being blamed on a succession of safety blunders
Despite hitting an air conditioning duct and a door awning, Sergei was caught in rug held by a group of men
‘They couldn’t get themselves together or overcome the fear of seeing his heavy reaction to what they had to say,’ she explained.
‘They were scared. They couldn’t find the words. Today after lengthy work we found the right approach, the tactics for howto speak to the boy.’
He ‘reacted in the way a child should to such terrible news – he cried,’ said Portnova, chief teenage psychiatrist in Moscow.
Sergei did not ‘retreat inside himself’ but ‘let his emotions flow’, she said.
When his tears subsided, he asked: ‘Who will I live with?’
Roaring flames tore through the shopping mall this week in Kemerevo, Russia
Thick black smoked billowed into the sky after the shopping mall in Siberia was engulfed in flames
He was told one of his grandmothers will care for him and become his guardian.
Russians have poured roubles into a fund for his wellbeing.
A leading pop singer Philipp Kirkorov, 50, has vowed to support him as he grows up.
Vera Lavrova, the boy’s aunt, said: ‘We have not asked people for help – but they keep offering.’
Earlier Sergei had was asked by doctors how he came to be in hospital.
He recalled: ‘I was flying.’
Funerals for his family have been held in the grief-stricken city, centre of the Russian coal mining industry.
Officials say 64 people – many of them children – died in the inferno.