Eight people have reportedly perished in a blaze which had occurred in a 15-storey building in Moscow on Friday overnight, after a fire alarm had malfunctioned.
The fire had erupted in the building in a southeastern district, an agency investigating criminal acts said, adding that four people were hospitalised. Emergency services said the blaze broke out on the ground floor of the building, adding that the flames were doused soon after midnight and that more than 200 people were evacuated.
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A senior emergency official told TASS news agency that a fire alarm in a hostel malfunctioned and that the people inside were trapped as all the windows had metal bars.
A criminal negligence case has been opened.
Russian buildings are regularly struck by fires and gas leaks blamed on poor maintenance, infrastructure or negligence.
In another report, Greece late Sunday battled three major wildfires which erupted across the country and forced hundreds to evacuate, as soaring temperatures raised fears of more blazes.
The country is in the clutch of a heatwave that began on Saturday and is expected to last 10 days. In some regions, temperatures were set to rise to 42 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit).
Experts blame climate change for the soaring temperatures and warned that the worst is yet to come.
Fires raged in the north, east and south of Greece, including on the island of Lesbos.
Officials ordered the evacuation of around 200 people on Sunday afternoon from Vryssa village on Lesbos as flames crept closer, some 500 metres (1,600 feet) from houses, the deputy mayor of western Lesbos told Skai radio.
Elderly women carried plastic bags with only a few personal belongings as they boarded the first buses to leave the village.
Thick clouds of smoke were already engulfing the first houses of Vryssa.
Early in the afternoon, the village of Stavros was also evacuated.
