GUWAHATI: Two minor brothers were killed when a major fire engulfed their house in Guwahati on Thursday.
Seven-year-old Ishan and his five-year-old brother Iban were playing on the first floor of their Basisthapur residence when the fire broke out. Their grandmother was on the ground floor.
Both the children were killed on the spot. The cause of the inferno was not immediately known.
Tushar Goswami, the father of the two children, was in Upper Assam’s Sivasagar where he is serving as a geologist. It was Iban’s birthday on Thursday and their mother was visiting friends to invite them.
Some locals said they had rushed to the house but could not enter it as the door was on fire. Later, the fire was doused by firefighters who retrieved charred bodies of the two brothers, found in each other’s arms.
Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal mourned the deaths. He instructed Kamrup (Metro) district deputy commissioner (district magistrate) to conduct a probe into the incident.