Hospice owner in Russia detained after nine people die in fire

Russian investigators said on Monday they had detained the owner of a private hospice outside Moscow after a fire there killed nine elderly people and hospitalized nine others.

Investigators said they suspected that the blaze, which broke out during the night, was caused by faulty electrical wiring in the hospice for elderly people in Krasnogorsk, which is located in the wider Moscow region.

“The bodies of nine people aged between 66 and 90 years were found with thermal burns... nine more people were hospitalized,” Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement.

A medical worker sprays disinfectant at his ambulance in St. Petersburg, Russia on May 4, 2020. (AP)

A criminal investigation had been opened to establish whether safety rules were violated, it said.

The incident follows another fire on Saturday at a Moscow hospital treating patients infected with the novel coronavirus which left one person dead.

The Spasokukotsky hospital No. 50 was treating nearly 700 patients infected with the coronavirus as of Friday.

It was not clear what started the fire or whether it impacted the wing housing coronavirus patients.

The emergencies services in Moscow said in a statement that one person died and 200 had to be escorted from the building.

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