The 12-year-old was showering when she inhaled the steam (Picture: Getty)

A young girl died while showering in her family bathroom after she had an extremely rare reaction to the steam.

Shaza Al-Azayzeh was rushed to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, on the Gaza Strip, in Palestine, after the freak accident yesterday.

The 12-year-old was declared dead on arrival, and medics said the cause was steam inhalation.

It is unclear whether an investigation into her death is going to take place.

Shaza was rushed to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in Palestine (Picture: Rex)

It is exceptionally rare for steam inhalation to cause death but there are a handful of examples of this happening.

One 2005 study, published in the in the Journal of Clinical Forensic Medicine, cites the death of two children as the first known cases.

Authors BL Bhootraa and J Kitinya found that the fatal inhalation of steam causes haemorrhages to the brain, lungs and heart.

It also congests parts of the throat and lungs.

Oxygen to the blood gets depleted and this is essentially what causes death.

This all happens within a few minutes of the strange reaction to breathing in steam.

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It is exceptionally rare for steam inhalation to cause death.