MOSCOW, January 7 (RIA Novosti) - Four people, including a child, died in a fire in a 19th-century mansion in central Moscow on Wednesday, a spokesman for the city's emergencies department said.

The emergency call was received at 7:44 a.m. Moscow time (04:44 GMT), and the fire, which covered some 20 square meters, was extinguished within the next hour. Twenty-four people have been rescued, Yevgeny Bobylyov said.

The four bodies are currently being identified.

Viktor Klimkin, first deputy head of the emergencies ministry's main department in Moscow, said on Sunday the number of fire-related deaths in the city had been rising since the start of 2009.

"Two people were killed on January 1, and another five on January 2. Six people died at the same time on January 3," he said.