Russia has suspended the use of Russian-made medical ventilators of a certain model manufactured after 1 April, a state healthcare regulator said, following two hospital fires reported to involve two such machines.

The Aventa-M medical ventilator was used at the Saint George's Hospital in St Petersburg where five people died in a fire yesterday, and also in a hospital in Moscow where a fire killed one person on Saturday.

Roszdravnadzor, the regulator, said it was checking the quality and safety of the ventilators in the two hospitals.