MOSCOW: A major fire broke out Wednesday in Moscow at a building belonging to Russian missile manufacturer Almaz, the maker of air defence weapons including the S-300 missile system, officials said.

The fire at the company`s design bureau had spread over an area measuring 800 square metres (8,500 square feet) and dozens of firefighters had been sent to the scene, a spokesman for the Emergency Ministry, Yevgeny Bobylev said.

State television pictures showed a huge cloud of grey smoke rising into the sky from the area affected in the north of Moscow. Its cause was not immediately clear.

BDST: 1452 HRS, June 30, 2010