DUSHANBE, February 1, 2016, Asia-Plus -- Twelve people, including three children, have died after a fire swept through a sewing workshop in the east of the Russian capital Moscow on January 30.

The victims were reportedly migrant workers who had been living and working in the building.

According to Russian media outlets, eight citizens of Kyrgyzstan, two citizens of Uzbekistan and two citizens of the Russian Federation (ethnic Kyrgyzs) were killed in the fire.

Russia''s child rights commissioner Pavel Astakhov said of the three children who died, one was a small baby.

The blaze reportedly engulfed some 3,000 sq meters of the building and took more than five hours to put out.

A source in the law enforcement bodies told TASS that, according to preliminary data, the fire had been caused by arson.

TASS cited Yulia Ivanova, a spokeswoman for the Moscow Department of the Russian Investigative Committee, as saying that criminal proceedings have been instituted over deliberate destruction of property and death of people in the fire on Moscow’s Stromynka Street.  Earlier reports said that a criminal case had been launched under the provisions of Russia’s Criminal Code Article 105 (2) -- murder of two and more persons.

“The investigative bodies of the Moscow department of the Russian Investigative Committee have instituted criminal proceedings over the crime under Part 2 of Article 167 of Russia’s Criminal Code -- deliberate destruction or damage to property entailing human death and other grave consequences,” Ivanova said.