Nine people were feared dead after a fire broke out in a hotel in a northern Philippine city before dawn Sunday, local TV station GMA reported.

The incident happened at Sunshine Bed and Breakfast Hotel in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan province, said the report, adding that some 36 university nursing students, who were supposed to take the board exams Sunday, were staying at the hotel when a fire broke out before dawn.

Aida Mariano, mother of one of the students told GMANews.TV her daughter talked to her on the phone at around 3 a.m. and said nine of her classmates were trapped inside the blazing five-story hotel.

"Fatima was crying when she called me up. She said nine of her friends did not make it to the door. She was complaining something about locked exit doorways and fire extinguishers that are not working," said Mariano.

Romeo Opido, a class instructor with the university where the nursing students are from, confirmed six students were rushed to a hospital for treatment of burns, while the names of the nine missing students were withheld pending further investigation, a local radio station in Tuguegarao reported.

Authorities are still investigating the cause of the fire that razed the hotel up to the fifth floor.