New Delhi, India (BBN) – Three-year-old twin boys died after falling into a washing machine at their home in outer Delhi’s Rohini locality on Saturday.
The horrific accident occurred when their mother Rakhi had stepped out to buy detergent and other household items, having set up the machine and filled it with water for laundry at 12.39pm, reports hindustantimes.
When she returned, approximately “six minutes later”, she could not spot the children, who were playing in the house, in Avantika Apartments in Sector 1 and informed her husband Ravinder.
Failing to locate the children after frantically searching in and around the house for about 20 minutes, a neighbour made a PCR call and registered a missing complaint.
In the meantime, Ravinder looked inside the washing machine and found the two kids floating there.
“We heard a loud scream from inside the house. When we rushed inside, we saw that the two kids lying unconscious inside the washing machine. Their father immediately pulled them out and rushed to the hospital. But the boys could not be saved,” a neighbour told HT.
The police said the two boys apparently died of drowning since there was over 15 litres of water inside the machine.
“The mother of the boys had kept piles of clothes on the ground near the machine for washing. It appears that one of the kids first climbed the heap to see what was inside the machine and fell inside head on. The second child must have followed his brother. Since both of them fell head on, they were chocked. There was no way they could have come out,” said MN Tiwari, deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Rohini.
The police have initiated an inquiry into the incident and have sent the bodies for autopsy.
“It is an extremely unfortunate incident. We have sent the bodies for autopsy to ascertain the exact cause of death. Prima facie it appears to be a case of accident. But further action will be taken only once the autopsy report is out. No case has been registered so far,” Tiwari said. While Rakhi is a home maker, Ravinder works as a manager at Kotal Mahindra. They have another son.
BBN/SK/AD