Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a local clinic of cardiac surgery in the city of Blagoveshchensk, Russia, on Friday. Reuters

Russian doctors stayed behind in a burning, tsarist-era hospital in the country's Far East on Friday to complete open-heart surgery after a fire broke out on the roof while they were operating.

The fire, likely caused by an electrical problem, was brought under control without any casualties.

Local authorities promised to award the doctors who continued with the operation and the firefighters who extinguished the blaze.

Firefighters who took more than two hours to put out the blaze in the city of Blagoveshchensk said they used fans to keep smoke out of the operating room and ran in a power cable to keep it supplied with electricity.

Doctors and nurses perform a surgery at a local clinic of cardiac surgery in the city of Blagoveshchensk. Reuters 

"There's nothing else we could do. We had to save the person. We did everything at the highest level," surgeon Valentin Filatov was quoted as saying by REN TV. He said it had been a heart by-pass operation.

Firefighters extinguish fire at the hospital in Blagoveshchensk. AP

The ministry said 128 people were immediately evacuated from the hospital as the fire broke out on the roof.

"The clinic was built more than a century ago, in 1907, and the fire spread like lightning through the wooden ceilings of the roof," the ministry said. No one was reported hurt.

"A bow to the medics and firefighters," said Vasiliy Orlov, the local regional governor.

Reuters / AFP