Motel fire kills mother, 5 of her children in USA

A mother and her five children were killed on Saturday as a fire swept through a motel in the midwestern U.S. state of Michigan.

Kiarre Curtis, 26, and her five children aged from two to 10 likely succumbed to smoke inhalation, the Berrien County sheriff's office said.

Curtis' husband and a one-year-old child survived, and all eight of the family were in the same room.

Eight people were treated for smoke inhalation and released from a hospital. The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

The Cosmo Extended Stay Motel in Sodus Township was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived shortly after receiving a 911 call at 1:45 a.m. local time.

The two-story motel is described as a place for people with low incomes to "get back on their feet."

The motel is off Interstate 94 in the southwestern corner of Michigan, roughly 160 kilometers from Chicago. Local media quoted authorities as saying that 27 rooms were occupied and 90 percent of the property was damaged by smoke, fire or water.