Three women from Hampshire are understood to have been killed in a fire at an apartment block in Paris.

The mum and her two daughters are said to have died when the blaze ripped through the block of flats in the French capital.

Almost 200 firefighters tackled the blaze for six hours to bring it under control.

The women were staying in a fifth storey apartment when the fire broke out on Saturday.

Two other British women are understood to have escaped.

The bodies of two of the women were found on Saturday before firefighters discovered the third as they sifted through the wreckage.

An investigation into the cause of the blaze was today underway.