A woman and her twin sons were killed in a fire allegedly caused by a charging mobile phone in the middle of the night while all of them were asleep.

The woman, identified as Muthulakshmi (29) was residing in Rayanur near Karur town of Tamil Nadu. She was married to a man named Balakrishnan, with whom she had twin sons aged 3. The two of them were in charge of a hotel near Rayanur. Following a case of domestic issue over two years ago, the couple separated and Muthulakshmi lived with her sons and parents. She had reportedly sent her parents away to borrow money from their relatives over the weekend when the accident happened. The woman had left her phone on top of a table plugged in for charging overnight while she fell asleep on the sofa that was lying adjacent to the table. Around 6 am in the morning, the neighbours called the Fire and Rescue department when they saw smoke coming out of the house.

When the personnel broke the door open, they found the woman lying dead on the floor while her sons were in an unconscious state. They were immediately rushed to a local hospital, but succumbed to their injuries on the way and were declared dead on arrival at the hospital. Their bodies have been sent to a government hospital in Karur for post-mortem. A case of unnatural death has been registered by the police and investigation of the matter is currently underway.