2 kids, trapped inside their house, die of asphyxiation

Two children, aged two and five, suffocated to death inside their locked house at Basapura Main Road in Electronics City on Sunday. The parents had locked them up inside the house and gone for work.

The victims have been identified as five-year-old Sajan and his younger sister, Lakshmi.

The parents, Devendra and Roopasi, who hail from Nepal, had come to the city three years ago. Devendra was employed as a security guard in a nearby apartment and Roopasi worked as a domestic help. They used to stay in a rented house, located on the ground floor of a four-storey building, the police said.

Around 10.30 am on Sunday, Devendra and Roopasi had to leave for work and locked the main door and closed the windows to prevent the children from venturing out, a senior officer said.

When Roopasi got back home around 11.30 am, she noticed smoke emitting from inside. Amid the thick black smoke, she found Sajan and Lakshmi lying unconscious on the floor, while the house was partially burnt.

Roopasi shifted them to Narayana Hrudayalaya, where doctors declared them brought dead.

The police suspect that Sajan may have lit a matchstick soon after his parents left for work and the mattress caught fire. As the front door and windows were locked, the children had no way to escape and asphyxiated. The bodies were shifted to St John's hospital for postmortem.

The Electronics City police are investigating.