MOSCOW (REUTERS, AFP) - One person was killed after a fire broke out on Saturday (May 9) at a Moscow hospital treating patients infected with the new coronavirus, the emergency ministry said.

The Spasokukotsky hospital No. 50 was treating nearly 700 patients infected with the coronavirus as of Friday.

It was not clear what started the fire or whether it impacted the wing housing coronavirus patients.

The hospital, located in northwestern Moscow, had been designated by the authorities as one of the medical facilities treating coronavirus patients in the Russian capital.

The emergency ministry told the RIA news agency that the blaze erupted in a patient's room, without providing further details.

The fire has since been put out, the authorities said.

Russia has so far recorded 198,676 cases of the virus and 1,827 deaths.

The number of Russian coronavirus cases this week overtook French and German infections to become the fifth-highest in the world.