President Vladimir Putin has issued his condolences to Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff over the victims of a nightclub fire that occurred Sunday night in the southern city of Santa Maria.
In a statement posted on the Kremlin's website, Putin asks Rousseff to pass on his sympathy and words of support to those who lost loved ones in the fire. The fire claimed at least 233 lives, many of whom were college students at the club to mark the resumption of classes.
The fire is believed to have been caused by a pyrotechnic show that was going on inside the club.
Russia suffered a similar tragedy in 2009, when a pyrotechnic show at a nightclub in Perm started a fire that killed 156 people.
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