ROME, March 15, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - A woman and her three young children died in a fire that ravaged their apartment in the northern Italian city of Bologna overnight, officials said on Friday.

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said that he was "deeply saddened" by the deaths of the woman and her children, reported to be two-year-old twins, a girl and a boy, and a daughter aged six.

Firefighters were called around 1:00am to the fourth-floor flat, after a neighbour living above them raised the alarm, media reports said.

Officers arrived to find the home filled with smoke, the twins and their sister already dead.

Their mother, Stefania Alexandra Nistor, 32, of Romanian origin, died on her way to hospital.

Police believe the fire was an accident, caused by an electrical fault in a heater, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.

The mayor of Bologna, Matteo Lepore, told reporters that it was a "terrible tragedy for our community, an unbelievable thing".