MOSCOW: A fire in a retirement home in Russia's southern Urals killed 11 people while three more were hospitalized with injuries, local officials said Tuesday.
The fire broke out in the early hours in a wooden, one-story building of a private retirement home in a village in the Bashkiria region. A total of 16 people were in the building. It wasn't immediately clear what caused the fire.
Emergency officials said seven men and four women were killed in the incident. The regional branch of Russia's Investigative Committee said the victims of the fire were between 57 and 80 years old.
According to Russian media reports, they were bed-ridden residents of the retirement home.
A criminal probe into the incident has been launched and the head of the facility has been detained.