QUETTA, Dec 29: Five persons of an Afghan refugee family died of suffocation in Killi Omar area when gas from a heater accumulated in their room, hospital sources said on Sunday.

The bodies of the victims had decayed as they had died two days back, a doctor said.

According to police sources, Allah Noor Tajik, a watchman at a vacant house, slept in the servant quarter with his wife and three children without switching off the gas heater due to severe cold.

During the night, the heater went off for lack of oxygen and gas accumulated in the room killing the whole family. People of the area informed the police on Sunday about smell emanating from the quarter.

The victims were: Allah Noor, 45; Karima Bibi, 35; Abdul Jabbar, 12; Bibi Khan, 8; and Shahnaz, 5.—Staff Corresondent