Moscow care home fire kills at least nine

Firefighters can be seen on the hospice roof

A fire has killed nine people at a residential hospice on the outskirts of Moscow, and injured several others.

Six of the elderly residents are critically ill in intensive care.

The fire broke out in the private hospice in Krasnogorsk on Sunday night and was extinguished within an hour, emergency services said.

An electrical fault is suspected to have caused it. The hospice director has been detained for questioning.

Tass news agency says 37 people were in the building, known as the Second House home, at the time of the fire.

The Kommersant newspaper said that although the fire was small, staff were unable to carry out all of the residents, some of whom were immobile.

Those killed were aged from 66 to 90, with the cause of death listed as carbon monoxide poisoning.

A criminal case has been opened as the hospice allegedly failed to meet basic safety requirements.

Second House's website reports that the institution is located in two converted cottages in a forest zone outside Moscow.

Six people were killed in a separate fire at the Trety Vozrast retirement home in Moscow last month.