Three schoolchildren were charred to death in a fire that broke out in a car they were playing in on Thursday evening in Greater Faridabad.
The children, aged between 2 and 9 years, were playing inside the CNG-fitted Maruti van, which was lying unused for months near Wazirpur village, when it caught fire around 4pm on Thursday.
Police said the families of children are from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and their parents work in agricultural fields nearby. Their bodies were sent to a government hospital in Faridabad for post-mortem examination. The van belonged to one Vijay Kumar of Munger district in Bihar and one of the victims was his daughter.
On Thursday also, the three children were playing inside the van when a woman, who was passing by, noticed smoke in the van. She shouted for help but it was too late.
"We believe the fire took place due to lighting of a match stick," SHO Bhupani Satvir Singh said. The victims were identified as Vishaka (2), Vijay Kumar's child, Dinesh (8) and Kunal (9).