Six people were killed in a fire that broke out in a building in central Moscow in the early hours of Monday, a local emergencies official said.
The dead are believed to be homeless people who were taking shelter in an empty two-storey building located at Bolshaya Gruzinskaya Street. The bodies are being identified.
The fire covered an area of 1,000 square meters.
Russia has an appalling fire-safety record. Around 15,000 people die in fires across the country annually. In the United States, with more than twice the population, the figure is around 3,400 deaths a year.
RIA Novosti
