LAHORE, Jan 7: Four members of a family died of suffocation at the PCSIR Colony in Hanjarwal on Friday. Abdul Wahid told police that his maid Allah Rakhi, 30, lived in the servant quarter of his house along with her husband Ghulam Mustafa and two children, Zainab Bibi, 6, and Bilal, 4.

Mr Wahid said when none of the members of the maid's family turned up to his portion in the morning he visited their quarter and knocked at the door. However, he received no response, Mr Wahid said, adding that he called the police, who broke into the servant quarter and found the family members lying dead.

The police said that a gas heater in the room had been switched off, but it was leaking. There was no outlet for the gas, and it suffocated the family to death, they said. The bodies were sent to the city mortuary for autopsy. No case has so far been registered.