14 migrant workers killed in Moscow region fire

MOSCOW: Fourteen workers were killed when a building in the Moscow region caught fire Tuesday, Russia's emergency ministry said, adding that the victims could be Vietnamese migrant workers.

The three-story building in the town of Yegoryevsk, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of Moscow, is a former factory, a spokesman for the ministry said.

At lead one person was hospitalised with injuries, he added. The victims are "presumably Vietnamese citizens," the ministry's statement said.

Migrant workers in Russia often work illegally in squalid conditions which endanger their health and lives.

A source in the police told Life News website that the workers in Yegoryevsk were locked from the outside by their employers to sow clothing in the small room and were only brought food and materials once a day.

Immigration officers and police in Yegoryevsk raided a covert factory making children's clothing on August 2 finding 150 Vietnamese migrants, local administration said on its website last month. (AFP)