Russian emergency services say a fire swept through a printing plant's warehouse in Moscow on Saturday, killing 17 migrant workers from Kyrgyzstan.

The fire was caused by a faulty lamp on the first floor of warehouse, where many flammable liquids and paper products were stored, and it spread quickly through an elevator shaft to the room where those who died were working, said Ilya Denisov, who heads the Moscow branch of the emergency services.

He said firefighters found the bodies of 16 workers and sent four injured workers to the hospital, where one later died.

Denisov, whose statements were carried by Russian news agencies, said the dead were all from Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia, and were believed to be working legally in Russia.