At least three people were killed and more than a dozen others injured in a house fire in western Germany, authorities said Monday.

The fire broke out in the early hours of the day on the first floor of a four-story house in Solingen and quickly got out of control, a spokesman for the fire department told public broadcaster WDR.

Local media reported that the old building's wooden staircase quickly burst into flames during the fire, with people on upper floors trapped and some of them trying to jump out of windows to save their lives.

The cause of the fire was not immediately clear. The police said that an investigation is underway in cooperation with other state authorities./AA/