You're reading: Poroshenko: May 2 tragedy in Odessa could have been terrorist attack

 The events at the House of Unions in Odessa on May 2, in which at least 46 people died and over 200 were injured in a fire, can be qualified as a terrorist attack, parliamentarian and presidential candidate Petro Poroshenko said. "Proof was presented at the Verkhovna Rada's session behind closed doors today that what happened at the House of Unions can be called a terrorist attack," Poroshenko said at a press conference in Kirovohrad on May 6.

 He claimed that a warfare agent was used against the people taking refuge at the House of Unions.

It was reported earlier that at least 46 people had been killed and over 200 injured in riots and a fire at the House of Unions in Odessa on May 2.

The next day, Ukrainian First Deputy Prime Minister Vitaliy Yarema said the deaths of most of the casualties in the House of Unions were quick, and they could have possibly been killed by gas. He suggested that this could have been gas emitted as a product of combustion of an unidentified substance. “Expert analysis should determine what gas this was,” Yarema said at a news conference in Odessa on May 3.

Ukrainian police vowed on May 6 that the May 2 events in Odessa would be investigated impartially. Deputy Interior Minister Serhiy Chebotar told journalists at a press conference that a number of people, including members of the radical Right Sector group, would be detained as suspects in the near future. He hinted that some of these detentions are likely to be sensational.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Kyiv is not hurrying to investigate the May 2 tragedy in Odessa. “The Kyiv authorities have expressed some inarticulate condolences, declared a mourning period, and started an investigation. However, it would hardly be a surprise to many if this investigation is soft-pedaled – just as it happened with the sniper shootings in the Ukrainian capital in February,” Lavrov said at the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers session in Vienna on May 6.