Toddlers burnt alive
By IANSSaturday, February 5, 2011
KOLKATA - Two children died of severe burns Saturday after a fire broke out in their hut in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district, police said.
“Three-and-a-half-year-old Jhumpa Mondal and her two-year-old brother Bibek were burnt to death while they were sleeping Saturday morning at Gachtala village near Kultali,” said South 24 Parganas’ Additional Superintendent of Police (Rural) Ranendranath Banerjee.
The mother of the children went out early morning, leaving behind her two sleeping children.
As the fire broke out, locals rushed in and tried to douse the flames but were too late to save the children.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the fire broke out from a kerosene lamp, kept beside the bed.
“The nylon mosquito net caught fire and it spread rapidly as the house was made of highly inflammable materials. The children got trapped and were burnt alive,” Banerjee said.
