Putin news: Huge Moscow tower block catches fire and fills sky with black smoke

Fire broke out on the roof of the mammoth but yet unfinished Capital Towers building that is around 300m high and has 66 floors. Scaffolding caught fire at the top of the massive building, which had due to be finished later this year, according to local reports. Emergency services rushed to the scene, with the Ministry of Emergency Situations saying only that firefighters were investigating the incident.

Several pictures and videos posted on social media show thick black smoke billowing into the night sky as the fire burns.

NEXTA, a Belarusian media outlet that is primarily distributed through Telegram and YouTube channels, tweeted a video of the building on fire.

It wrote: "Emergency services arrived at the scene of the accident.

"According to preliminary data, a fire broke out on the roof of the building."

The fire was put out before the fire brigade arrived, with only the scaffolding burned, according to the TASS news agency in Russia, citing various sources.

Capital Towers is a complex of three luxurious and residential skyscrapers that is currently under construction in Moscow, and is located near the Moscow International Business Centre on a Moskva River bank.

The three skyscrapers are named Park Tower, City Tower and River Tower.

Russia has blamed a Ukrainian missile attack after at least three people were killed and dozens of residential buildings damaged in the Russian city of Belgorod - located just 25miles north of the border with Ukraine.

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The regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov posted on the Telegram messaging app that around 11 apartment buildings and 39 private houses were damaged, including five that were destroyed.

But Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said: "I emphasise that this missile attack had been intentionally planned and was launched at the civilian population of Russian cities."

He said Russian air defences had destroyed three Tochka-U missiles, but fragments of one of them fell on residential buildings.

The Russian Defence Ministry spokesman added they had also destroyed explosives-laden Ukrainian drones approaching Kursk, another city in southern Russia.

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A city resident told Reuters "The sound was so strong that I jumped up, I woke up, got very scared and started screaming.

They described how the blasts happened at around 3am local time, adding: "All the windows in our house were shattered."

Ukraine has yet to comment publicly on the attacks and thus has so far not claimed responsibility.