Family and friends of a woman whose four children died in a fire at their home have spoken of their shock over the tragedy.

The children, all under the age of 10, died after a blaze broke out and engulfed the property while they slept upstairs.

Neighbours struggled to reach the two boys and two girls as the fire swept through the house last night in Hulland Ward, near Ashbourne, Derbyshire, but could not open the front door.

The 45-year-old mother, named locally as Rachel Henson, escaped and then tried unsuccessfully to get back into the house to rescue her children.

She is being treated in hospital for smoke inhalation.

Her sister Rebecca, 45, told reporters: "She loved her children. She was a single mum but not on benefits. She worked her backside off for her kids."

Two of the children, named locally as Tommy, aged nine and Appolonia, two, were carried out of the house by firefighters but later died in hospital.

The bodies of the two other children, named by family members as Aleisha, six, and Rocco, four, were later found inside the semi-detached house in Highfield Road.

Following the tragedy, their grandfather Tony Nulty said: "I just can't believe it. They were two beautiful little children."