Manila, May 29 (IANS): Three children were killed when a fire ripped through a house in the Philippine capital region on Sunday, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) said.

The bureau said the fire broke out around 4.19 a.m. on the third floor of the house in Quezon City, killing three children aged nine, eight, and four on the spot, reports Xinhua news agency.

The children's father told local reporters that his wife woke up to a smell of smoke coming from a room on the third floor that quickly spread to the living room.

Screaming for help, the father said he and his wife grabbed their four-month-old baby and crawled to the second level with their eldest child.

They reportedly threw the baby through a window to the arms of a neighbour, who caught the infant safely.

The couple and their eldest child then escaped by jumping out of the second-floor window.

Firefighters extinguished the fire 30 minutes later.

The bureau is still looking into the cause of the blaze.

It is the second deadly fire that occurred in Metro Manila this month.

On May 2, a fire engulfed a residential area inside the University of the Philippines compound in the Quezon City suburb, killing at least eight people.