Story By: Basant Essam, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash

Four children who agreed to help their mum trying out a carpet died when they threw it over a fence and it struck a high-voltage cable.

The 11,000 V shock killed all four instantly, and set the carpet on fire which was spotted by neighbours called the fire brigade, believing it was going to set the property alight.

When the fire brigade arrived, they then discovered the mother of the four children lying among the corpses cradling the bodies and trying to revive them.

In order to recover the bodies, the emergency workers had to get the electricity cut off by the local power company as it was still a danger of further shock.

However, there was nothing that could be done to save the brothers Laith, 13, and Hassan, 14, and their sisters Zainab, 15, and Ruqayya, 16, who died whilst trying to help them dry the carpet.

They had carried the carpet onto the roof and hung it over a fence to dry in the Al-Siddeqa neighbourhood in the Basra governorate in southern Iraq.

But the wet carpet got too near the high-voltage line as they threw it into the air to loop it over the fence, which electrocuted all four.

Local news site Remonews confirmed that the mother of the four siblings had asked them to take the wet carpet onto the roof of their house and hang it out to dry.

The siblings have reportedly since been buried.