Fire at psychiatric hospital kills 23

Twenty-three psychiatric patients, most of them elderly, died when a fire ripped through their care facility in southern Russia on Saturday night, in the latest tragedy to hit mental health hospitals in the country.

"The bodies of 23 people have been found during an on-site inspection," the Investigative Committee said in a statement on Sunday, adding that a further 23 people were hospitalized.

Seventy patients and four nurses were in the ward when the fire broke out shortly before midnight on Saturday at the hospital in the village of Alferovka, located in the southern Voronezh region.