A pre-dawn fire in a two-storey house in eastern China killed 22 people and injured three on Sunday.

The city of Changshu in Jiangsu province, about 80 km northwest of Shanghai, said on Sunday in a brief social media post that the fire broke out around 4.30 am. The post said authorities have put out the fire and finished cleaning the scene.

The cause remains under investigation. It is not clear how many residents survived.

Citing unnamed sources, an earlier report by the official Xinhua news agency said more than 20 people lived in the house.