Nine family members killed in Pakistan house fire

Nine members of a family died in north-western Pakistan after a house caught fire and collapsed, officials said on Sunday.

The incident took place in a remote area of Abbottabad district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in the early hours of Sunday.

The victims included a mother and eight children after the roof of the mud house caved in on the family, rescue officials said.

It took several hours to retrieve the bodies from under the rubble as rescue workers raced against time to save two other members of the family.

Fires in residential and commercial buildings are common in Pakistan, where the majority of high-rise buildings operate without certified fire and safety systems.

Most of the country's population lives in rural areas lacking fire departments. Fire departments in Pakistan are largely understaffed and ill-equipped to handle disasters.