Six killed in Japan apartment blaze

Tokyo Oct 6 (IANS) Six people including five children died in a blaze in an apartment building in Japan on Friday a media report said.

The fire engulfed a three-story building in Hitachi. It started at around 4.50 a.m. and took almost an hour to be extinguished.

The blaze was started by a 32-year-old man who surrendered himself to the police. He claimed that he deliberately started the fire Xinhua news agency reported.

"I set fire to my house " a police official quoted the man as saying. He too was injured in the blaze. "My wife and five children were in my house " he told the police.

Those killed in the blaze were a woman four boys aged three to six and an 11-year-old girl. The bodies were found in a room on the first floor of the apartment.

--IANS
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