Trapped in metal shed, migrants burn to death

A FIRE at a Moscow market in the early hours of yesterday killed 17 migrant workers who were unable to escape from the metal shed where they were sleeping, the city fire department said.

All were citizens of former Soviet nations in central Asia, authorities said.

A spokesman said the fire that broke out at the Kachalovsky market at 5am tore through an insulated metal shed where the workers slept.

The roof collapsed during the blaze, which burned for more than two hours, he said.

Investigators were still determining the cause of the fire, but said they suspected it may have started with electric space heaters. A light snow had fallen overnight.

A fire department spokesman told Russian television that workers were unable to exit through the one door connecting their living quarters with an adjacent storage space.