Eight dead in fire at migrant shelter near Moscow

Rescuers said two residents escaped but eight bodies were found in the house on the edge of a holiday village.

“According to investigators, a 23-year-old man rented the house, which was subsequently rented to foreign citizens who were not registered in Russia,” prosecutors said.

As shown in a video, firefighters were seen in the morning watching the smoldering rubble as parts of the wall crumbled.

The public prosecutor’s office ruled out gas as a possible cause of the fire.

Fatal fires are not uncommon in Russia. The country has suffered from lax safety standards for years and has struggled to modernize older buildings with alarm systems and fire extinguishers.

Despite official attempts to combat illegal immigration, an estimated hundreds of thousands of foreigners live in Russia without residency status.

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