POLICE IN ENGLAND are continuing to investigate what caused a house fire that killed four children in Derbyshire on Monday.

The children were named as Tommy, nine, Aleisha, six, Rocco, four and Appolonia, two. Their mother Rachel Henson, 45, managed to escape but tried unsuccessfully to return to the house to rescue her children. She was taken to nearby Royal Derby Hospital where she was treated for smoke inhalation and has since been released, PA reports.

Fire officers have said that the fire broke out on the ground floor while the children slept upstairs.

Neighbours had reportedly tried to the children stuck inside the house but were unable to open the front door. Two of the children, Tommy and Appolonia, were eventually reached and carried from the house but died later in hospital, the BBC reports. The bodies of the other children were found upstairs in the property.

Chief Supt Peter Lewis, of Derbyshire Police, told reporters: “At this stage there is no obvious sign of what caused the fire”.