Fifteen people died yesterday when a nighttime fire tore through a two-storey Moscow market warehouse in which migrant workers from a former soviet republic were camping out.

Unconfirmed news reports said the migrants were from the impoverished central Asian nation of Tajikistan. Numerous Moscow markets employ cheap labourers from the region without giving them proper housing or pay.

The blaze broke out early yesterday at the market on the southern outskirts of the city called Kachalovsky. Officials said it took two hours to put out.