A 12-year-old boy died trapped in a burning wooden house yesterday morning in the coastal Athens suburb of Vari as his parents made desperate efforts to extract him.

The Albanian couple had set off for work at around 6 a.m., leaving young Vassilis, his 7-year-old sister and the children’s grandmother asleep in the Kaiafas family’s prefabricated home on 10 Rodou Street, and a woodstove burning to keep the cold at bay. Looking back, they saw smoke and hastened home.

By then, their daughter had managed to leave the burning house, dragging her grandmother after her. But Vassilis was still inside, and, as his father started to force his way in, the roof collapsed.

A force of 20 firemen eventually managed to extinguish the fire — which was probably caused by the stove — and found the boy’s body pinned under a rafter.