London: In a tragic incident, five members of a non-resident Indian (NRI) family including two children died in a massive fire at their house in Leicester, police said today (Apr 6, 2004).

Kavita Sharma and four members of her family - her son Sunit, 6, daughter Pritika, 3, and children's grandmother Vinod and their uncle Bipan - died yesterday as flames engulfed their house in Somerville Road, Leicester, about 100 kms from London.

Her husband, Deepak was the only survivor of the household as he had left for work minutes before the fire broke out.

The bodies of all the five were pulled out from the blaze, the police said.

Kavita Sharma was on the telephone to relatives in India when she smelt the smoke and tried to raise the alarm. She rang a relative, Pervin Khosla, a few doors down the same street to shout, "Auntie, there is a fire", before opening a bedroom window to scream for help from neighbours.

A final call to her husband was cut off and rather than jump to safety from the first floor window, she dashed back into the house to save the others. She is thought to have reached the children's bedroom before being overcome by fumes.