City authorities have paid compensation to 28 people whose health was damaged after they inhaled smoke during an incident on the Moscow metro on June 5, a news report said Monday.
"Cash compensation to the tune of 100,000 ($3,010) was paid to the 28 citizens who stayed in Moscow's medical facilities for treatment," the city's transport department said in a statement carried by Interfax.
Payments were made by order of the acting Moscow mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, the statement said.
The city's authorities are responsible for the transport system's smooth and safe operation as well as passengers' comfort, and without this realization the system can't work "at the appropriate level," head of the transport department Maxim Liksutov was quoted as saying.
Several dozens of people were hospitalized with smoke poisoning as a result of a fire in the tunnel connecting the Okhotny Ryad and Biblioteka Imeni Lenina metro stations on June 5. The fire caused a major interruption in the transit service on the metro's busy Gray Line and the evacuation of about 4,500 people.
