Seven children of farm labourers, five of them belonging to one family, were burnt alive in a fire in Bohar village in Rohtak district in Haryana Friday.

The incident occured when a hut, wherein the children aged between two to six years were playing caught fire at about 1000 hours. The parents of the children had gone to the fields, police said.

Three of the deceased --Vikas (3), Anu (4) and Vinay (6) -- were children of one Mukesh while two others -- Muskan (2) and Tanu (3) were the offspring of his brother Pawan. The two others burnt in the fire were identified as Anu (3), daughter of Rohtash, and Ajay (4), son of Manjit.

The fire was spotted by some villagers and as they entered the hut after extiguishing it, they found all the childern dead.

Police said the cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained.