More than 100 people evacuated from apartment block in Moscow as it is ravaged by blaze (VIDEO)

Dozens of people have been evacuated from a multi-story building in Moscow in the middle of the night after a flat on its upper floor caught fire, prompting fears that the blaze could spread to the rest of the apartment block.

Videos have emerged showing a fire ripping through an eight-story building in the southwest of Moscow. The flames first engulfed the flat on its eighth floor around 2.57am local time, but then quickly spread to the attic.

The fire eventually extended to an area of over 2,000 square meters before it could be contained by firefighters in the early hours of the morning.

Five people were rescued from the burning building, while over 120 were evacuated as a precaution and were taken to a temporary shelter. The fire was only put out at around 6.10am, after it been ravaged the building for over three hours.

Some 29 units of equipment and 120 firefighters were involved in a large-scale effort to stop the blaze.

No casualties resulted from the inferno, according to the Moscow branch of the Russian Emergencies Ministry. It’s unclear if there were any injuries among those rescued, with the ministry reporting that the survivors of the fire would be subject to medical checks.

An aerial view of the building shows its badly scorched roof – turned into smoldering ruins by the blaze.

It is currently unclear what triggered the fire.

The incident comes as the Russian capital, which has been in partial lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak, is gearing up for gradual rollout of a pass system, designed to tighten control over people’s movement.

The new restrictions are intended to alleviate pressure on the city’s healthcare services, as they struggle to cope with a surge of new Covid-19 cases. Some 10,158 people have tested positive for the virus in Moscow – the nation’s hotbed of the disease – and at least 72 have died.

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