At least 12 people dead in Moscow factory fire
January 31, 2016
According to Russian news agencies, the blaze in northeastern Moscow erupted around 9 p.m. local time (1800 UTC/GMT) on January 30, damaging about 3,000 square meters (over 32,000 square feet) of the building that houses a clothes factory, and causing part of its roof to collapse.
Authorities said that the victims of the fire were probably migrants who had been working and also living at the factory premises.
Children among the dead
Oksana Zolotova, a spokeswoman for the Emergency Ministry, confirmed with the Russian TASS news agency that 12 bodies had been recovered so far.
Russia's child rights commissioner Pavel Astakhov verified on Twitter that three children had also died in the blaze.
The cause of the fire was reported as unknown, but according to the dpa news agency, TASS had claimed that a preliminary probe had indicated the blaze had been caused by arson, adding that a murder investigation has been launched.
Local media also reported that it took five hours to extinguish the fire.
ss/cmk (dpa, AFP)