RAWALPINDI, Dec 1: A five-year<>1d girl died of suffocation when a fire broke out in her house at Bahria Town Phase 1 on Saturday night, police said.

The police said that Amir Madani, 45, the father of the deceased girl, had recently shifted his family to the rented apartment.

On Saturday night, the family slept after leaving a candle burning on a side-table.

Sometimes in the night, the candle fell on a sofa which caught fire and the smoke filled the house causing difficulty for the inmates to breathe.

As the couple woke up and started trying to put out the fire, Mr Madani sustained burn injuries. After more than one hour, the flames were extinguished by firefighters.

The young girl, Zoya, was taken to a private hospital where she was pronounced dead.

The cause of her death was stated by the doctors to be suffocation.Zubair Chaudhry, the brother of Mr Madani`s wife, was also staying in the house but he remained unhurt.

Staff Reporter