Russian police detain hospice owner after nine people die in fire

Monday, 11 May 2020 15:34

The owner of a private hospice in Moscow has been detained after a fire let nine elderly people dead.

Nine more people have been hospitalised in the incident, which investigators blame on a faulty electrical wiring.

A criminal investigation is currently underway to determine whether safety rules were violated.

"The bodies of nine people aged between 66 and 90 years were found with thermal burns," Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement.

It comes just days after a fire in a Moscow hospital treating COVID-19 patients left one person dead.

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