Fire kills 4 family members in India's Chennai

NEW DELHI, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Four members of a family, including three children, were killed on Saturday apparently due to suffocation after fire erupted inside their house in India's southern city of Chennai, police said

The fire broke out at a house in the Madhavaram Milk Colony in Chennai, capital city of the southern Tamil Nadu state.

"Four people, a 65-year-old woman and her three granddaughters aged between 8-10 years, were killed in a fire incident," a police official said. "Preliminary investigations suggested the four were suffocated due to inhalation of smoke triggered by an accidental fire in their bedroom, where they were sleeping."

Police have recovered the bodies and sent them for the postmortem.

It is suspected that the mosquito-repellent device triggered the fire.

Chances of fire in Indian villages and cities are usually high as people often ignore safety standards vis-a-vis fire, and store fuel and combustible materials in a haphazard manner.