A fire in a wooden apartment building in Tomakomai, Japan, early Monday claimed the lives of three young children, police said.
The Japanese news service Kyodo reported the bodies pulled from a burned-out room were those of a 6-year-old girl, her 4-year-old sister and 2-year-old brother.
The three siblings were the grandchildren of a 71-year-old woman who lives on the ground floor of the apartment building that houses four families,
police said. Three other residents received minor burns and were taken to a hospital, Kyodo reported.