A 37-year-old woman immolated herself at her Harmilap Nagar home in Baltana on Friday even as two of her children cried in terror in the next room.
The woman was under treatment for depression, her husband, a driver working in a public school in Panchkula, told the police. He has been out of work.
Their children, a 5-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter, were at home when the incident occurred.
The woman had already died by the time the police arrived at the spot at 11 am after being informed by neighbours, who, alerted by the children’s cries, rushed to the first floor of a building where the family stayed, forced open the door and threw blankets on the woman to douse the fire.
“She had locked herself in the room and the children were in the adjacent room,” police said. She suffered 80% burn injuries.
Inquest proceedings have been initiated and the body kept in the General Hospital at Sector 6, Panchkula.