At least nine people were killed when fires broke out in three separate places in Russia, the Emergency Situations Ministry said Thursday.

Three people were killed when a fire engulfed a warehouse in Moscow in the small hours of Thursday. The three unidentified men were believed to be guest workers from Central Asia, who made tiles in the storehouse.

Another three people died in the central Nizhny Novgorod region, where a fire in a private house killed a young man, his mother and grandmother. Two other residents escaped with heavy burns.

Investigators at the scene said the fire was caused by an exposed electric wire in the wooden house.

In Kurgan region in southern Urals, three children were killed in a fire in a private house on Thursday morning.

Also on Thursday, a fuel tank exploded at a parking lot in the city of Tver, some 150 km northeast of Moscow, destroying about dozens of cars, but causing no casualties.