MOSCOW - SEVEN people died in Moscow on Tuesday when a fire tore through an underground garage that was being used to house construction workers, Russia's Emergencies Ministry said.

Local news agencies said all the victims were citizens of Tajikistan, a Central Asian state with a large population of migrant workers in the Russian capital.

'Seven bodies were found in the garage,' the ministry said in a statement. 'Twenty people were rescued from the fire and two were hospitalised.'

A spokeswoman for the ministry said none of the bodies had been identified. She confirmed that the owners of the building had permission to house workers in the garage during construction work.

Walls built of flammable material were used in the basement in 'crude violation of fire safety rules,' the ministry statement said.

Hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants work in Moscow and many complain of working in substandard conditions. -- REUTERS