Moscow, Nov 24: A fire broke out at a University Dormitory in Moscow early today, killing 28 foreign students and injuring some 80 other people as residents of the five-storey building jumped from windows to escape the smoke and flames, the Interfax news agency reported.
The blaze was burning on the second, third and fourth floors of a dormitory belonging to the Patrice Lumumba friendship of Peoples University, where many foreigners study, a duty officer at the Moscow Fire Department said. She said there were dead and injured but could not confirm the number or nationality of the victims.
Firefighters found the bodies of foreign students at the site of the blaze in southwestern Moscow, Interfax reported. Citing a Foreign Students` Union, it said the dead and injured included citizens of China, Bangladesh, Vietnam and several African countries.

Interfax reported that firefighters used ladders to evacuate students, but that some residents broke limbs or suffered head and neck injuries when they jumped from windows, while others suffered from smoke inhalation. It said the fire was extinguished before dawn, about three hours after the alarm was sounded.
The university, named for a Congolese revolutionary, was founded by soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1960. Once a showcase where students from third world nations received subsidized education with a strict Marxist curriculum, the university declined as the soviet union collapsed and its buildings became run-down.
Bureau Report