Updated: 11.26pm

A WOMAN HAS been arrested after five children died in a house fire in the English east midlands in the early hours of this morning.

Police have said that the children who died were all aged between five and 10-years-old while the sixth child hospitalised is aged 13. Two adults suffered minor injuries according to BBC News.

A woman in her 20s has been arrested as part of Derbyshire Police’s investigation, Sky News reports.

The woman was arrested elsewhere in the city, police confirmed at a press conference but they declined to expand on the exact cause of the fire

Police said the children were upstairs in the house and asleep when the fire broke out. The two adults in the house were downstairs.

The fire broke out in the early hours of this morning morning with police, fire and ambulance crews all called to the house in Allenton in the city of Derby just before 4am.

Earlier Derbyshire Police said in a statement: “Police can confirm that five children have died in a house fire on Victory Road Derby. A sixth child, aged 13, has been transferred to hospital in Birmingham for specialist treatment. The two adults are not seriously injured.

“The ages of the children who died range from five up to 10-years-old.  The investigation into the cause of the fire is at a very early stage and it would be wrong to speculate at this time.”