A children's game may have cost the lives of a mother and two of her sons in a house fire, it was revealed last night.

Shamoon Nabeel, aged four, his three-year-old brother Aysan and their 25-year-old mother, Sadia, died in the blaze, despite desperate attempts by their father, Nabeel Maqsood, to rescue them.

He managed to save his eldest son - Hamza, aged five - from the flames which swept through the family's end-of-terrace home in Stockton.

A distraught Mr Maqsood told The Northern Echo last night: "I could do nothing - I could not get back in. I tried. I could hear my wife and the children screaming."

Fire officers were shocked at the speed which the flames spread through the home, which is now a burnt-out shell.

It is thought that a number of cushions and cuddly toys in the downstairs room, where the fire began, may have contributed to the fire catching hold so quickly.

Sadia had just bathed the children, before planning to set out on a trip into town early Saturday afternoon.

She rushed back into the bathroom with her two youngest sons when she found her escape down the staircase had been cut off by the blaze.

Evidence uncovered by forensic investigators points to the involvement of the children in the fire at the house in Russell Street.

Three fire engines were sent to the blaze. Divisional Fire Officer Bob Scott said: "We did everything we could do, but we were surprised how quickly the fire spread. This was fast even by our standards."

The children's distraught grandmother, Hamida Na-beel, said: "One of the little ones put some lighted paper in a bin."

Sobbing, she revealed that Shamoon had told her, only last week, that he wanted to be a Fireman Sam when he grew up.

Their grandfather, Mohammed Maqsood, described how he returned to face the horror, having made a special trip to buy strawberries for the youngsters.

He said: "I just cannot accept it at the moment in my mind. It's like a bad dream. It's terrible."

His brother, Mohammed Afsar, said: "No words can describe the feelings of what the family is going through."

The children's father claimed that his wife and two sons could have been saved had not the first fire engine turned into the wrong end of Russell Street, which is divided in the middle by bollards and a concrete planter.

"It took them about 20 minutes to get in the correct end," said Mr Maqsood.

"If they had not turned in at the wrong end, they could have saved them."

But Mr Scott said that firefighters were on the scene within four minutes of the 999 call.

He added: "We have no concerns about our response."