Fire in Jordan Valley kills 13 Pakistanis, including several children

Thirteen Pakistanis, including eight children, died when a fire swept through their makeshift dwellings on a farming estate in the Jordan Valley, Jordan's civil defence said on Monday.

Rescue services said "13 people died and three others were injured when fire broke out in a corrugated metal house" on a farm in South Shuna, around 50km west of the capital Amman.

A fire service spokesman told state television channel Al-Mamlaka that eight children, four women and a man had died in the blaze at around 2am, which was likely caused by an electrical fault.

There were three other injuries in the fire, civil defence spokesman Iyad al Amre said in a statement.

Thousands of foreign labourers, including many Pakistanis, live in wretched conditions in private farms in the Jordan Valley, a fertile vegetable and fruit growing area.

Another civil defence source said two families lived in corrugated iron sheds that housed immigrant labourers and that a police investigation had been opened into the incident.

Three other people were taken to hospital suffering from shock and burns, the Reuters news agency reported.

House fires in Jordan are often caused by the use of cheap but dangerous forms of heating while the occupants are asleep.

Jordan has in recent years seen several deadly incidents among Syrian refugees living in camps during the winter, such as fires caused by electrical faults or choking from domestic gas stoves.