KARACHI, Dec 14: A fire that broke out in a two-room house in the early hours of Wednesday claimed the life of an elderly man and his teenaged nephew, police said.The police added that 60-year-old Khadim Hussain and his 16-year-old nephew, Irfan Arif, were sleeping inside their rented house in Shahnawaz Bhutto Colony of North Karachi when it caught fire.

Fire tenders and ambulances rushed to the scene.

But it took the two fire tenders an hour-long effort to douse the flames. Firefighters said they found burnt clothes in the rooms.

Ambulances shifted the bodies to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

“It was not an arson attack. The fire had erupted accidentally,” said an official at the Khwaja Ajmair Nagri police station. He quoted area residents as saying that the victims had hired the house only a week ago. “They sold second-hand clothes.”

DSP Altaf Hussain said that the victims were using the house also as a warehouse for clothes. He said initial investigation showed that Mr Hussain was a chain-smoker and the fire might have been started by a burning cigarette butt.

It was also possible that they had lit the fire to keep themselves warm during the cold night and the clothes caught fire.

The official said the teenager had recently arrived here to work with his uncle. “Both the victims hailed from Faisalabad.”

No case had been lodged at the Khwaja Ajmair Nagri police station till Wednesday night.

Two held in shoot-outTwo suspected bandits were arrested while their three accomplices managed to flee during a shoot-out with police that left a constable wounded in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on Wednesday morning, officials said.

The officials said that the Mobina Town police station earlier received information that five bandits had entered a house in Block 4 of Gulshan-i-Iqbal. As they rushed to the place, one of the suspects who had taken up position outside the house opened fire on the policemen and an exchange of fire ensued.

During the shoot-out, the police arrested Ahmed Shah and Naseeruddin, while their three accomplices, including a wounded suspect, fled. Police constable Sajjad Akbar was also wounded in the firing.

Speaking to Dawn, SP Gulshan Division Salam Shaikh said that two police uniforms, an AK-47 rifle, two TT pistols and a car found in the custody of the suspects were seized.

The arrested men were wanted in nine cases, including the one related to the killing of Head Muharrir Zahir Shah, the SP said.

An FIR (509/2011) under Sections 353, 324, 170, 171 of the PPC and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 was registered at the Mobina Town police station on behalf of the state.