Three members of a family, including two children, died in a house fire in Dundalk overnight.
A 39-year-old man and his daughters, aged three and 18 months, died in the fire which broke out on the ground floor of their house in the Castleross Estate in Dundalk.
A woman, believed to be the mother of the children managed to escape the blaze and is now being treated in hospital for shock.
The scene has been preserved and members of the garda technical bureau are expected there later today to carry out a forensic examination.