The Moscow fire safety watchdog has asked courts to close 54 night clubs, discos, cafes and restaurants following joint checks on December 7-11 with police and prosecutors, the Emergency Situations Ministry said Saturday.

A ministry spokesman said 425 venues in the Russian capital were checked for safety, and five of them were already suspended by courts. "Materials on 54 facilities have been submitted to courts to consider suspending their activities," he said, adding that 390 officials and legal entities were fined.

The checks were held in Moscow following a deadly fire that broke out in the Lame Horse club in the west Urals city of Perm early on December 5 after an indoor fireworks display went wrong. The death toll in the blaze has reached 145 people.

The art director along with two other Lame Horse managers and the head of a fireworks supplier are under investigation over the Perm accident. Negligence charges were brought on Friday against two more senior emergencies and fire safety officials in Perm, who were fired along with a host of other officials earlier this week. They face up to seven years in prison if convicted.

The government of the Perm Territory resigned on Wednesday over the tragedy.

The Perm fire was the deadliest Russia has seen in half a century. In 1961, a total of 110 people died in a fire that broke out in a wooden school in Chuvashia.

MOSCOW, December 12 (RIA Novosti)