An elderly couple died in a blaze that apparently started when an electric fan at their home in Tokyo's Adachi-ku caught fire in the predawn hours of Monday, police said.

Police said that the fire broke out in the home of 84-year-old resident Noboru Koike at about 2:50 a.m. on Monday, destroying about 10 square meters of the first floor of their home.

Koike and his 81-year-old wife Chiyoko were removed from the blaze by firefighters, but Koike died from burns and his wife died from smoke inhalation.

The electric fan in the room in which Koike had been sleeping was burning fiercely, and police said there was a possibility it had shorted and caught fire, police said. They said that the couple had lived alone in the house.

Source : Mainichi