Manila - Six people were killed in two fires that also left more than 3,000 people homeless in the Philippines, police said Thursday.

Three children, aged 6 months to 4 years, died when the shanty house they were sleeping in caught fire before midnight Wednesday in Taytay town in Rizal province, 15 kilometres east of Manila.

Three more people suffocated to death before dawn Thursday in a fire that gutted more than 100 shanties in the slum district of Tondo in Manila.

A fireman injured in the Tondo fire was being treated at a nearby hospital.

Arson investigators were verifying reports that candles left unattended caused both fires. (dpa)