ELEVEN PEOPLE HAVE been killed in a house fire in Queensland, Australia, which police have called one of the worst residential fire tragedies in the state’s history.

Two Pacific Islander families from Tonga and Samoa were asleep inside the house when it caught fire. Eight children and teenagers are among the dead - with the youngest being just three years old, reports the BBC.

The authorities were alerted to the scene by neighbours who heard explosions, breaking glass and screaming.

Those who died are believed to have belonged to three generations of the same family, reports the Daily Mail. Two men escaped the flames while another man, who was outside when the fire began, also survived.

One man reportedly jumped from a window believing his wife and child were safe, and was unable to return for them when he realised they were trapped inside.

Thirty firefighters worked to put out the intense fire – the cause of which has not yet been established.

The incident is the worst single-building fire in Australia since 2000, when 15 backpackers were killed as a result of an arson attack at the Palace Backpackers Hostel in Childers, the Wall Street Journal reports.