Mother and seven children dead after fire broke out while they slept in France home - TheJournal.ie

A MOTHER AND her seven children aged two to 14 have died after a fire broke out while they slept in their house in northern France, police and firefighters have said.

The mother and her children died from asphyxiation, local prosecutor Julien Morino-Ros told AFP.

The woman’s husband, father to three of the children, was seriously burned and transferred to a hospital, they said.

Four of them were from the mother’s previous relationship.

A total of 80 firefighters were called to the scene, and the fire was extinguished after several hours, local authorities said.

The tragedy was the worst such incident since 2013, when five children between two and nine died asphyxiated in an accidental fire, also in northern France.