Bareilly: Five members of a family, including three children aged three, six and nine, were charred to death after their house caught fire in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district last night. It is being suspected that a short-circuit in the room heater or internal wiring could have led to the fire, police said.
The incident that took place in Faridpur of the district came to light after neighbours raised an alarm after noticing smoke billowing out from the house. A huge crowd gathered outside the house and a team from Faridpur police station area reached here on getting information about the incident. When police broke the main door and entered, they found all five members had severe burn injuries.
The members were taken to the nearby hospital but were declared brought dead. Police have sent the bodies for post-mortem.
The deceased have been identified as Ajay Gupta (35), his wife Anita Gupta (34), sons Divyansh (9) and Daksh (3) and daughter Divyanshi (6). All five members had gone to sleep after dinner on Saturday.
"When we woke today morning, we found smoke coming out of the house of the Gupta couple. We started shouting for help and also informed the police. On entering their house, we saw the charred bodies of the couple and the three children," a neighour said.
Police and district administration officials have reached the spot and initiated an investigation. Superintendent of Police Rural Mukesh Chandra Mishra said that preliminary investigation shows that all five people were burnt alive due to a fire that broke out in the house.
"We are probing the incident from all angles. The reason behind the accident is not clear yet but it is suspected that the house caught fire due to some short circuit," Mishra said.
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