NEW DELHI: Six people, including four members of a family, died allegedly after inhaling toxic fumes from coal braziers in two separate incidents in the national capital, officials said on Sunday.
Delhi is reeling under severe cold conditions as the minimum temperature dropped to 3.5 degrees Celsius -- this winter's lowest -- on Sunday morning.
Two children were among the four killed in the incident in the Alipur area in outer north Delhi, police said.
The deceased have been identified as Rakesh (40), who was a driver of a water tanker, his wife Lalita (38), and their two sons Piyush (8), and Sunny (7), they said.
"On Sunday morning around 7 am, a PCR call was received at Alipur police station, saying one person was found lying unconscious at Khera Kalan village in Delhi. Immediately staff was rushed to the spot," a senior police officer said.
Police found that the door of the room was locked from inside.
"Our teams first broke the glass window and managed to open the door. Later, the team found four people inside the room in an unconscious state. They were rushed to the hospital, where doctors declared them dead," the officer said.
Police said that the forensic team and the crime team found a coal brazier (angithi) inside the room. Prima facie, it seems that all four died due to suffocation, police said.
Further investigation and proceedings into the matter have been started under section 174 of the CrPC, they said.
In a similar incident, two Nepal-native men were found dead in their room after they allegedly inhaled toxic fumes from a coal brazier in the Inderpuri area of west Delhi, police said.
According to the police, the deceased has been identified as Ram Bahadur (57) and Abhishek (22).
Police said Bahadur was a driver by profession and Abhishek was working as a domestic help.
"A call was received at 8.30 am that two persons residing in a room are not opening their rented house door," a police officer said.
Police said that it was found that the two men were locked in their third-floor room from the inside.
"The door was forced open and two people were found unconscious. They were rushed to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared them dead," the officer said.
"One 'angithi' with burnt residue was found in the room. There was one window that was found to be closed. No injuries were found on the bodies," said the officer.
Police have started further investigation and proceedings into the matter under section 174 CrPC.