WARSAW: Six homeless people died in Warsaw on Christmas Day after the wooden cabin in which they were sheltering caught fire, the emergency services said Wednesday.

The fire broke out Tuesday evening in an abandoned wooden cabin on the outskirts of the Polish capital and firefighters found gas canisters inside the wreckage.

Emergency workers had not been able to identify the bodies because of the extent of the damage, said a spokesman from the prosecutors office quoted by Polish media. Their remains had been taken to the coroner's office for autopsy.

Dozens of homeless people die in Poland every winter, either from hypothermia in the freezing temperatures or in fires that break out as they try to warm themselves in abandoned buildings where they are sheltering.