Three children received severe burn injuries on Rice Mill Road under Kanksha police station of West Burdwan while they were playing inside an abandoned vehicle.

Four kids were playing inside the vehicle at that time and no family members were present during the afternoon today when the incident occurred.

Advertisement

Locals said that they saw smoke billowing out of the vehicle and it caught fire. Four kids were shouting.

One local resident rushed to save the kids, but the fire was too strong for him to approach the vehicle. He rescued Shiba Singh, Golu Singh, Arush Shaw and Purba Shaw and took them to Kanksha Block Primary Health Centre.

The local resident, who had rescued the kids, had also fallen ill due to inhaling the black smoke.

Later, two kids were shifted to Durgapur Sub-Divisional Hospital and the other two, whose conditions are very critical have been shifted to a private super speciality hospital in Durgapur.

Later, Kanksha police and fire tenders, from the nearest fire brigade station rushed to the site to douse the flames. A large number of scrap vehicles are dumped at several places in Panagarh, under Kanksha police station and children often play inside these unclaimed vehicles over the years.

The rescuer was taken to Kanksha Block Primary Health Centre for treatment.