DHAKA, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Lightning hit a gas pipeline and sparked a house fire in Bangladesh's Sylhet district some 240 km northeast of capital Dhaka early Sunday, killing five people including three children and two women.

AKM Fazlul Haque Shibli, officer-in-charge of Sylhet's Golapganj Police Station, told journalists that the victims, who were asleep inside the single-store tin-shed house, were burnt to death on the spot.

He said the fire broke out at around 3:00 a.m. local time in a gas pipeline adjacent to the house of the victims after lightning struck there early Sunday.

Two other people were injured in the devastating fire, he added.

Storms accompanied by thunder and lightning are common during this season in Bangladesh.