A fire broke out at Sewla Jat area, Agra, in the wee hours of Saturday, killing at least 10 members, including six children, belonging to two families.

The incident happened at around 2 am on Saturday when a three storied house owned by Braj Mohan Agarwal in Sewla Jat area under Sadar police station reportedly caught fire when the entire family was asleep. The exact cause of the fire is not yet known.

Agarwal ran a provision store at the ground floor of the house. He was sleeping on ground floor while his sons and other family member were sleeping in the upper storeys of the house.

Neighbours said that they heard a blast possibly a gas cylinder, according to news agency IANS.

"The rescue operation began at 3 am and ten dead bodies have been taken out after breaking the wall of nearby house. Fire brigade was called in. They all belonged to family of Braj Mohan Agarwal and dead include four adult and six children," Hindustan Times quoted Ajay Kumar Chauhan, the district magistrate of Agra, as saying.

"Those killed were sleeping on the first and the second floor of the house and were taken off guard. We are investigating to assign exact reason behind the deaths," he added.

Due to power cut children in the house were studying in candle and they slept off without putting off the candles, which could be one of the reasons of the fire, sources said. Three to four people are injured in the incident.

Those who were burnt alive in the fire include Mahesh, his wife Sharda and three children Himanshu, 17, Varsha, 15, Shubham, 13, who were sleeping on the second floor. Also Rakesh, his wife and children Ankit, 12, Piyush, 10, and Prachi, 10, were killed in the fire.

Agrawal and his wife Kavita escaped as they were sleeping on the ground floor.