Death toll from fire in Moscow region's Fryazino reaches 8 - emergency services

MOSCOW. June 24 (Interfax) - Preliminary figures put the death toll from a fire in an administrative building in Fryazino outside Moscow at eight, a spokesperson for emergency services told Interfax.

"According to preliminary information, a total of eight people have died," the spokesperson said.

Earlier reports put the death toll from the fire in Fryazino at two.

A fire broke out in an eight-story administrative building at 2, Zavodskoi proyezd in Fryazino on Monday. The building's fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth floors are ablaze. According to the latest updates, the fire is now burning on an area of 4,500 square meters.

Two Kamov-32 helicopters are helping combat the blaze.

The Moscow region's Prosecutor's Office said that it is overseeing measures to establish all circumstances of the incident.

Various lines are being pursued in the investigation, the emergency services spokesperson told Interfax.

"The priority ones are a short circuit and an equipment malfunction," he said.

A gas cylinder exploded on the sixth floor during the fire, he said. Floors in the building collapsed.

Ruselectronics, a holding company that controls the Platan Scientific Research institute, said that the building burning in Fryazino has nothing to do with Platan or the defense industry. In late 1990s, the building was privatized and changed hands, it said.