Wellington - Ten people, including a pregnant woman and two of her sons, died when a bus caught fire in Fiji early Friday morning, according to news reports from the capital Suva.

The bus, carrying about 50 members of an extended family to a funeral, was travelling from Suva to Nadi when fire broke out and it crashed off the road after the brakes failed, the independent Fijilive website reported.

Trapped passengers could not get the door open and nearly 40 were reported to have escaped through the windows.

Fijilive said a woman who was seven months pregnant died with her sons aged three and one year, while her elder 5-year-old boy escaped. The woman's husband was reported to have been travelling separately in the accompanying hearse.

Cause of the fire was not known. (dpa)