Moscow - Xinhua
Five children and four adults were killed when a fire engulfed a residential building in the Russian region of Krasnoyarsk, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported Monday. The fire was reported less than an hour after midnight in a village in the Siberian krai, according to the agency, which quoted local emergency officials as saying that a couple, their five children and two guests were sleeping in the building when it was ablaze. Firefighters worked for several hours at the scene, but did not prevent the flames from burning all the household goods inside and outside the building into ash. The cause of the fire was still under investigation, but the agency said that late reporting might have contributed to the severity of the tragedy.