Tragedy in Northern France. Seven children aged between 2 and 14 died together with their mother last night in a fire in a house in Carly-sur-Marne , the gendarmerie and firefighters said.

The father was badly burned and taken to the hospital.

At the origin of the fire a malfunctioning dryer on the ground floor of the house. The neighbors raised the alarm shortly before 1 in the morning, the father and husband of the victims was rescued by a firefighter who lives nearby and intervened before the arrival of his colleagues . However, his condition is serious.

The father attempted to put out the fire as the children and their mother sought refuge on the second floor of the house, but this move ultimately proved to be a death trap , the prosecutor explained.

As black smoke filled the house, firefighters had difficulty reaching the upper windows of the home, which is located on a narrow street in the center of the village of 2,600 people. The electric shutters on the windows were jammed due to a power outage, further hampering the rescue efforts .

Eighty firefighters called to the scene, the fire was extinguished after several hours, local authorities said. The tragedy is the worst such incident since 2013 , when five children aged between two and nine were asphyxiated in an accidental fire, also in northern France.

(Unioneonline/L)