Twenty-one foreign students are in a critical condition in hospital after fire ripped through their accommodation in Moscow.

The 16-storey dormitory, which belongs to one of Russia’s top medical schools, caught fire late on Wednesday, leaving a total of 43 people in need of medical attention.

Of the 43, 36 were still in hospital on Thursday morning – 21 of them in a critical condition.

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”According to preliminary information, all of the injured are foreigners,” a spokeswoman for the city of Moscow said.

The dormitory belongs to the Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, one of the country’s oldest medical schools.

Enforcement of fire safety regulations is known to be lax in Russia, where thousands of blazes are recorded every year and the death rate from fires is several times higher than in the West.