A house fire in Siberia’s Tomsk region has killed 11 people and left two injured, the local unit of the Emergencies Services Ministry said on January 21.
The fire took place in a one-story wooden shack in the village of Prichulymsky in the Asinovsky district at around midnight.
The blaze covered an area of 208 square meters and the house's roof collapsed in the fire.
A Chinese company rents the house and it is occupied by 14 residents from China, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, according to local authorities. The whereabouts of one occupant is unknown, the TASS news agency reported.
Ten of the 11 killed in the fire were Uzbeks, Uzbekistan's Emergency Situations Ministry told the Interfax news agency. Local officials said the remaining victim was a Russian woman.
Representatives of the Tajik Consul-General in the city of Novosibirsk, however, told Interfax that at least one of the victims may be Tajik.
Local authorities said a criminal case has been opened into incident, the cause of which is under investigation.