A fire, possibly caused by an electrical fault, swept through a university dormitory block in Moscow early this morning, killing 32 foreign students and injuring 139 others, local officials said.
With freezing temperatures outside, many casualties had jumped from windows to escape the blaze in the crowded five-storey block housing students from the developing world at Moscow's Patrice Lumumba People's Friendship University.
"People were jumping from the windows because it started on the second floor and there was no other way out. It was absolutely horrible," Mr Richard Mallobe, a sociology student from Liberia, said.
"It happened very fast. Some people jumped and were burnt so we tried to get them into ambulances."
Students said the concrete block - a typical example of buildings hastily thrown up across the Soviet Union in the 1960s - had housed newly-arrived students awaiting medical checks, and was notorious for being filthy and overcrowded.
Among the casualties were students from China, Bangladesh, Vietnam and a number of African countries, the trade union of foreign students told Interfax news agency.
The semi-official China News Service said 17 Chinese students were missing and 33 others injured in the fire. Chinese embassy officials were not immediately available for comment.
"Twenty-eight people died inside the building, three bodies were discovered outside and one person died later," a city police spokesman said.
He could not confirm their nationalities. He said 139 people had been treated for injuries and a total of 272 people, including students from China, Vietnam, Ecuador, Tahiti, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Angola were registered as living in the block.
The university, founded in 1960, was named after Congo's first president after the African nation gained independence from Belgium. It was designed to provide subsidised Socialist education to students from the developing world.