KUNMING - Two boys and a girl died when their rented home in Southwest China's Yunnan province caught fire Sunday, police said.

Fire broke out at around 12 pm at an apartment in Guangwei village of Guandu district in the suburbs of Kunming, the provincial capital, the city's public security bureau said in a press release.

It said neighbors had put out the flames and taken two children out of the apartment when fire fighters arrived. The children died later in hospital.

One child was stranded in the apartment and was found dead when rescuers arrived, the document said.

Police said the three children, including two boys aged 4 and 8 respectively and a 5-year-old girl, were home alone when the fire broke out. Their rented home was a tiny dwelling in a crowded apartment building with a narrow corridor and no fire extinguisher.

The cause of the accident is still under investigation.