At least nine killed in Moscow care home fire

A fire at a retirement home in the Moscow region has killed at least nine people and left several more in intensive care, local authorities said Monday.

The fire in the privately-owned care home in the town of Krasnogorsk started at around midnight on Sunday and was extinguished within an hour, emergencies services said.

"Nine people died on site and nine more were rushed to hospital in serious condition and are being treated in intensive care," the Krasnogorsk municipal government said in a statement.

Russian agencies said 37 people had been in the building at the time of the fire.

Kommersant newspaper said many of the care home residents were not mobile and employees were unable to carry them out of the smoke despite the fire being small.

The fire is the second such incident around Moscow in just over a month. Investigators are looking at another fire in an retirement home in the capital which killed six people in April.