TAKO, Chiba -- Four bodies were found in the charred remains of a house after it caught fire early on Friday morning, police said.

A mother and her three children living in the house are missing, and police are trying to identify the bodies, as well as the cause of the fire.

According to police, a fire broke out at the house of Koji Uchida, 39, an elementary school teacher, in Tako at around 9 a.m. on Friday. The fire consumed the entire two-story house before it was extinguished.

Uchida's 30-year-old wife, Hiromi, and their 5-year-old twin sons, Yuki and Yoshiki, as well as their nine-month-old baby girl, Sakura, remain missing and are believed to be the victims, police said.

Uchida had left home before the fire started. The house is located about three kilometers northeast of the center of Tako and is surrounded by fields dotted with private houses.

Shizuo Suzuki, 62, a farmer who lives about 150 meters away from Uchida's house said, "I learned about the fire at around 9 a.m. through the community wireless system that announced there was a fire in Kitanaka. The fire started in the first floor and then fiercely burned the second floor. The detached house is about 10 years old."

Another male neighbor in his 60s said the fire raged inside the house and thick black smoke was billowing from it before the fire was extinguished 30 or 40 minutes later.

"The exterior of the house did not burn, so the fire did not spread to neighboring houses," he said.

A 24-year-old female company employee who lives in the vicinity said, "The family tend to be absent in the morning, so I thought they were not in the house today."

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