Deathly fumes

Five girls were playing around a bonfire in Gujarat's Surat and hours later, three were dead leaving two survivors to tell the nightmarish tale that led up to their deaths. The group had gathered around the bonfire, made from burning garbage in an open field in Pali village in the Sachin area. The girls started vomiting after inhaling fumes from the fire and fainted soon after. All of them were rushed to a private hospital where three of them - Durga Mahanto (12), Amita Mahanto (14), and Anita Mahanto (8) - died.

"While they were warming themselves, the girls started vomiting and fell unconscious. They were rushed to a hospital where three of them died," said Sachin GIDC-1 police inspector JR Chaudhari. The police officer said that the exact cause of death will be known after a postmortem report is prepared and forensic examination conducted. "Prima facie, inhaling a poisonous gas seems to be the cause," he said.