Over 3,000 people evacuated due to market fire on Moscow outskirts

A major fire broke out at a building materials shopping centre in the Moscow region, with over 3,000 people, including visitors and personnel of the shopping centre, evacuated, the Russian Emergencies Ministry said Sunday, China's Xinhua news agency reported.

The fire started on the basement floor of the Sindika marketplace located in the suburb of the Moscow city in the afternoon and then spread up to the roof of the building, according to the ministry's Moscow region department.

Spots of fire are scattered in an area of 55,000 square metres, and there was a collapse of the roof on an area of 1,000 square metres, the ministry said in the latest statement.

A number of cars have exploded at the underground parking lot of the building, Russia's TASS News Agency quoted a source in the emergency services as saying.

Two people were injured in the fire, one of them hospitalised, according to Moscow's regional Health Ministry.

The cause of the fire remains unknown for the moment.

More than 240 people and 140 pieces of equipment were sent to the scene of the fire for the rescue operation, including three Ka-32 helicopters, the ministry statement said.

Building structures are still collapsing, while the firemen are hoping to contain the fire by 2-3 am Moscow time, a spokesman of the ministry's main regional directorate said.

Up till now, the environmental situation is still being monitored, and a mobile laboratory is running to measure harmful substances, the ministry said.

-- BERNAMA