MANSEHRA: Six members of a family died of suffocation caused by gas leak in Pano Dehrai area on the outskirts of the Mansehra city here on Wednesday.

The victims included a man, his mother, wife and three children.

The police said the family had left a gas heater on before going to sleep, which stopped burning when gas pressure became low, and the leaking gas filled the room.

“The neighbours had to break the main gate of the house after receiving no response from the family members in the morning, and found all the family members lying dead in a room of the house,” the police quoted Mohammad Riaz Tanoli, a cousin of the head of the family, as stating in the FIR lodged with the city police station.

The victims were identified as Mohammad Afzal, an auto electrician, his mother Hajra Bibi, wife Abida Afzal, son Saim Afzal, 8, and daughters Noor Afzal, 4, and two-month-old Anum Afzal.

The neighbours shifted the bodies to the King Abdullah Teaching Hospital. Later, the doctors handed the bodies over to the family after completing the medico-legal procedure.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2021