Altogether, six people died due to suffocation in the national capital on Sunday after allegedly inhaling toxic fumes emitted by ‘angithis’ (coal braziers) that they had lit to keep themselves warm amid the bone-chilling cold weather.

According to police, the people were found unconscious at their respective locations in both incidents, with ‘angithis’ found near them in their rooms.

In the the first incident, reported from Outer North Delhi’s Khera Kalan village, the bodies of four family members, including a woman, her husband, and their two children, were found in an unconscious state. They were rushed to the hospital where the doctors declared them brought dead. The deceased were identified as Rakesh, Lalita, Piyush, and Sunny.

“Prima facie, it seems that all the four died due to suffocation,” a police officer said.

Police said that the room where they were found was locked from inside. The police had to break open a window to reach them. Inside their room, the police found a coal brazier whose toxic fumes allegedly asphyxiated them.

According to the police, the second incident was reported from West Delhi’s Inderpuri area. They said that they received a PCR call around 8.30 am and the caller told them that two persons residing in a room were neither opening the door nor responding to calls. He suspected that the duo had burned ‘angithi’ the previous night and might have fallen unconscious.

On reaching the spot, the police learned that two servants of the landlord lived in a room located on the third floor of the building in Inderpuri. On breaking open the door, the police found both persons dead. An ‘angithi’ with burnt residue was also found in the room. The room had only one window, and that too was found shut, the police added.

A crime team, which later inspected the spot, found no injury marks on their bodies. The deceased were identified as Ram Bahadur alias Som Bahadur and Abhishek. Both belonged to Lumbini in Nepal. Ram Bahadur worked as a driver for the landlord, and Abhishek had been serving as a domestic help for the last month.

Meanwhile, Delhi recorded the coldest morning of the season on Sunday, with the minimum temperature dropping to 3.5 degrees Celsius, 4 points below the season’s average.

It was the third successive day when the city recorded a minimum temperature of less than 4 degrees Celsius, with cold wave conditions gripping the national capital, leaving people in shivers.