One person died early on Tuesday when flames...

Earlier reports said 250 people had been evacuated from an adjacent residential building, but that there were no casualties in the Opera nightclub.

The body was discovered when firefighters were working at the scene of the blaze, which has now been extinguished.

"Preliminary information indicates he was a security guard," a spokesman for the emergencies ministry told RIA Novosti.

The flames consumed over 1,000 sq. meters of the three-storey nightclub and the roof of the club collapsed.

According to officials, the nightclub was closed for 30 days in December last year due to poor fire safety record.

Nationwide fire safety checks were ordered by President Dmitry Medvedev after a fire late last year killed over 150 people at a nightclub in the west Urals city of Perm.

MOSCOW, March 9 (RIA Novosti)