GILGIT: Five members of a family were killed while six houses were damaged in a fire in Shigar district on Thursday night.

The victims included a woman, her two sons, a daughter and their grandmother.

According to police, a fire erupted in a house in Basha village in upper Shigar on Thursday night, killing five members of a family who were identified as Mukhtar, 18, his mother Skeena, sister Bano, 7, two brothers, Ali Hasan, 5, Abbas, 3, and grandmother.

The fire also damaged six adjacent houses. The police said the reason of the incident was yet to be known, however, it is suspected that the family had left a heater on before going to sleep that might have caused the fire.

The people from the neighbourhood rushed to the house to rescue the f amily and control the fire.

The Rescue 1122 and district administration officials couldn`t be contacted on time because of lack of communication f acilities in the area.

Shigar deputy commissioner, SP, of ficials of GB Disaster Management Authority and Rescue 1122 arrived at the scene and started rescue operation. In a statement, commissioner Baltistan Syed Ali Asghar said the affected families would be compensated.-Correspondent