The blaze broke out on the second floor of a wooden two-storey building. It swept through the staircase and two apartments. Fire fighters said the building with 11 residents may have been set on fire deliberately.

"Three people were killed in the fire and three injured, including a baby girl born in 2009," the emergencies service said in a statement.

A total of 572 fires, which have resulted in 103 deaths, have been registered in the Nizhny Novgorod Region since the start of the year.