Three young women were killed in a blaze following an explosion caused by a gas leak set off by an 11-year-old girl, Shanghai Youth Daily reports.

At about 11:20am on Wednesday, the girl was cooking at her home on the second floor of a three-storey building in Zhongshan Xilu when a small fire started in the kitchen.

The girl was so frightened that she knocked over the gas container attached to the stove as she ran off with her younger brother.

The explosion occurred soon after, setting off a raging fire that engulfed the third floor. Three women in their early 20s died in their sleep. The fire was extinguished in 15 minutes after firefighters received a report of the blaze.

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