Dozens are dead after a Russian psychiatric hospital fire

The home had around 140 patients in all.

Rescue workers were able to save more than 50 people, including four staff members.

Most of the fatalities were aged in their 60s and 70s, although some were in their 40s and 50s, according to a list of patients released by the emergencies ministry. Those who were evacuated were placed in a nearby home for elderly and disabled people.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered officials to provide support to the families of the victims, while Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov went to the scene to oversee the response to the tragedy.

More than 20 are at hospital; 28 have been rescued and now stay at the clinic’s other building. The health minister said half of the patients were given sedatives at night, but insisted they were not tied to their beds and were not given any medication that would leave them unconscious and unable to escape. The blaze broke out late Saturday in the southern Russian city of Voronezh and took a crew of more than 800 four hours to extinguish, the Interfax news agency reported.

A fire at a psychiatric hospital in northwest Russian Federation in September 2013 left 37 people dead while another blaze in April of the same year killed 38.

“Investigators will look into every possible version of how the fire started and led to such tragic consequences”, Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement, saying it considered the incident a crime.

In 2006, a fire at a Moscow drug rehabilitation clinic killed 45 women.