ASTANA – A fire in the Kazakh capital, Astana, has killed five children from a single family, officials say.
City authorities said on February 4 that the fire hit a house overnight, killing five girls aged between three months and 13 years.
Emergency service officials told RFE/RL that the blaze occurred during the night when both parents were at work.
The fire was extinguished one hour after the firefighters received a call from neighbors, they said.
The children's father was said to work as a car mechanic, while the mother is an employee of a plant producing payment cards.
The couple has received assistance from psychologists, according to the local Emergencies Department's spokeswoman Ayagoz Fazylova.
Authorities were still investigating the cause of the deadly fire.