A three-year-old boy playing at a stove accidentally ignited the fire that ripped through a New York apartment building, killing 12 people, the city's fire department chief has said.
The blaze broke out yesterday evening in a 25-apartment building in the Bronx.
New York police said that four children died in the fire.
Four people remain in critical condition following the blaze, which Mayor Bill de Blasio called the "worst fire tragedy we have seen in this city in at least a quarter century".
"We found that this fire started in a kitchen on the first floor," fire commissioner Daniel Nigro told reporters.
"It started from a young boy, three-and-a-half years old, playing with the burners on the stove.
"The fire got started, the mother was not aware of it - she was alerted by the young man screaming."
The boy's mother fled with her two children, leaving the door to the apartment open - allowing the flames to shoot up the stairway and quickly spread in the building.
"The stairway acted like a chimney," Commissioner Nigro said. "It took the fire so quickly upstairs that people had very little time to react."
Five people died at the scene, and seven others were pronounced dead at local hospitals.
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"It seems like a horrible, tragic accident," Mayor de Blasio said.
More than 160 firefighters rushed to the scene and worked for about three hours to control the fire.
In the bitter cold, water leaking from the hoses froze on the pavement.
Three girls, aged one, two and seven, and an unidentified boy were among the dead, police said.
A 19-year-old woman was also killed.
Residents said they heard cries of "fire, fire" in the building followed by a mad rush to exit the smoke-filled building.
Commissioner Nigro told reporters that investigators were still determining the condition of smoke detectors at the scene.
"This tragedy is, without question, historic in its magnitude," said Commissioner Nigro.
"It's the time of year where people celebrate and certainly here, we have people who have lost their lives, lost their homes, lost everything, and we grieve with them."
Over 160 #FDNY members are operating on scene of a 4-alarm fire, 2363 Prospect Ave #Bronx pic.twitter.com/wjN9mMqCHU
— FDNY (@FDNY) December 29, 2017
In March 2007, ten people were killed in another fire in the Bronx, which at the time was the worst blaze in the city since 1990 apart from the 11 September 2001 terror attacks.
Yesterday's fire was New York's deadliest since 87 people were killed in a 1990 inferno at a Bronx social club, The Times said.
