Farm fire kills seven children in US

A farmhouse fire in the US killed seven children while their mother was in a barn milking cows and their father was taking a nap in a delivery truck.

The children were aged from seven months to 11 years. One other survived.

The children's father had left the two-storey home, on a working farm in Pennsylvania's dairy country, to get his truck around 10pm. Two children, aged two and three, were watching television at the time.

The father drove a short distance away to pick up milk and parked the truck about a mile from home. Then he nodded off.

Soon after, one of the children smelled smoke in the home and ran to the barn to alert the mother.

She called the emergency services then ran with the child to the father's truck and banged on its windows, screaming that their home was on fire.

By the time the father returned to the home in Blain, about 20 miles north of Harrisburg, it was fully engulfed by flames.

Firefighters were investigating the cause of the blaze today.