Two boys and an elderly man were burnt alive in Odisha's Koraput district when the haystack they were sleeping on went up in flames, police said Wednesday.
The incident took place at Jhiligaon village, about 550 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, at about 11 p.m. Tuesday when they were sleeping on the haystack near a paddy field in their village.
The elderly man is believed to have lit a hand rolled cigarette and tossed it on the haystack without dousing it properly which probably caused the fire, officer-in-charge at Kundura police station Antaryami Mohanty told IANS.
The dead are Ghasi Paraja,60, Rabindra Paraja, 8, and Manhar Paraja, 10.
Chakra Harijan, 12, survived with severe burn injuries and was shifted to a hospital, the officer said.
People in rural area often sleep on haystacks near their fields to protect crops during the harvesting season.