Five children rescued from blaze

Five children and two women have been rescued from a house fire on Merseyside.

Four boys, aged four, five, nine and ten and a girl of 11, were pulled from the blaze on Westminster Road, Kirkdale, at around midnight.

The youngsters are being treated at Alder Hey Hospital.The children's grandmother alerted fire crews.

The blaze is believed to have started in the kitchen and spread to the second floor where the children were sleeping.

Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service said the fire did not appear to have been started intentionally.

The children are being given precautionary checks for smoke inhalation.