At least 15 people have died in a fire that swept through a market warehouse in south Moscow early on Tuesday, Russia's emergencies ministry said.

"We believe they were migrant workers who lived at the market" a ministry spokesperson said, as cited by RIA Novosti. "We are now trying to determine which republic they came from."

Unconfirmed media reports said the migrants all hailed from the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan, an impoverished Central Asian state that supplies large numbers of Moscow's migrant workers.

"The bodies are being identified, but this is difficult as they are all badly burnt," a Moscow migration service spokesperson said.

The fire began at around 4.50 am (00:50 GMT) in a warehouse at the Kachalovsky market.

"I only saw burnt bodies, hands and legs," said a woman at the scene looking for friends. "It wasn't clear who was burnt." She also said the victims all lived and worked at the market.

Other unconfirmed media reports said the victims lived in cramped conditions and that there was no direct exit to the street from their sleeping areas. Reports also said the blaze had been caused by a space heater left on as temperatures dropped to around zero degrees Celsius overnight (32 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight. Rescue workers are operating at the scene of the blaze.

The fire broke out shortly after a blaze at a tower at an under-construction skyscraper that will be Europe's tallest upon completion. The fire in the Federation Tower complex was visible across large areas of the capital. There are no reports of casualties.

Russia has an appalling fire safety record. Some 12 000 people died in fires across the country in 2011, according to emergencies ministry figures. The United States, with a population over twice as large, saw around five times fewer fire-related fatalities.

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