Jammu: Six people, including two children, died of asphyxiation when a fire erupted in a house in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua early Wednesday, officials said. 

Four persons were hospitalised due to the incident, they said. 

A fire broke out inside a house in the Shiv Nagar area of the district, filling it with thick smoke while its occupants were sleeping. 

Locals noticed the fire around 2.30 am and rushed to the house, officials said. The victims were shifted to the Government Medical College Hospital in Kathua, where six, including two minors, were declared brought dead, they said. 

“Ten people were brought to the hospital. Six were brought dead, and four others were injured,” a senior doctor at the hospital said. 

Preliminary investigations suggest the victims died by suffocation after inhaling the smoke, the doctor said, adding that no burn injuries were reported.