Six killed in Japan apartment blaze

Tokyo: 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.