GUIYANG ?-- Five children have died after being found suffocated on Monday evening in a deserted house used for tobacco curing in southwest China's Guizhou Province, local authorities have said.

The five children, all male and with ages ranging from four to six, were discovered by local villagers in Majiang county at 5:40 pm.

Four of the boys were dead upon being discovered, while the fifth died in the hospital, the county publicity department said.

The children come from five different families. Their parents were helping out at a wedding dinner held for one of their fellow villagers and had apparently left them unattended.

An initial investigation showed that the children died due to suffocation after straw in the abandoned house was ignited.

The abandoned home they were discovered in is a mud-brick building with just one exit.