MOSCOW (AFP) - One person died when a fire tore through workers' tents at the construction site of a new hospital for coronavirus patients outside Moscow, officials said on Sunday (April 5).

The cause of the blaze was not immediately known, but it reportedly broke out in a tent containing a stove.

An emergencies ministry spokesman told AFP the fire, which covered 90 square metres, broke out in workers' accommodation at the site.

"Three tents have caught fire," the spokesman said.

"Unfortunately, one person died," he said, declining to give other details.

The construction site is located between the villages of Babenki and Golokhvastovo, just outside Moscow.

Moscow city authorities have been rushing to construct a medical facility for coronavirus patients styled on a hospital built in China in record time.

More than 3,000 builders are involved in the Russian project, and some of them live on the construction site.

The 500-bed hospital extending over 43 hectares was inspired by the "experience of Chinese partners", city officials have said.

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In February, China built a prefabricated hospital with 1,000 beds over 10 days in the city of Wuhan, the epicentre of its coronavirus epidemic.

Russia on Sunday reported 5,389 cases of the coronavirus and 45 fatalities, but the real number of infections is believed to be higher.