21 foreign students in critical condition after Moscow dorm fire

Twenty-one foreign students were on Thursday in a critical condition in hospital after fire ripped through a student residence in Moscow, an official said.

The 16-storey dormitory, which belongs to one of Russia’s top medical schools, caught fire late Wednesday, leaving a total of 43 people in need of medical attention.

Of the 43, 36 were still in hospital as of Thursday morning with 21 of them in “critical condition”, a spokeswoman for the city of Moscow told AFP.

“According to preliminary information, all of the injured are foreigners,” she added.

The dormitory belongs to the Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, one of the country’s oldest medical schools.

Enforcement of fire safety regulations is known to be lax in Russia, where thousands of blazes are recorded every year and the death rate from fires is several times higher than in the West.