NEW DELHI: Alone at home for a few minutes, three-year-old twins climbed inside a washing machine filled with water and drowned on Saturday afternoon in west Delhi's Rohini.
Police said their mother had set out to wash clothes but figured she had run out of washing powder. She left the two boys - named Nishant and Nakshya - alone playing by the washing machine and stepped out of their apartment to get some detergent.
When she came back six minutes later, she could not find the children. Failing to locate the children after frantically searching in and around the house for about 20 minutes, a neighbor called the police.
Meanwhile, the father, Ravinder, who immediately returned home also started searching for the children and found them inside the washing
machine filled with 12 to 15 litres water.
"Mr Ravinder immediately took the children to a nearby family hospital where doctors declared them dead. Shocked father could not believe and took them (the children) to Jaipur Golden Hospital where too doctors declared them dead," Top cop, MN Tiwari told IANS.
The police said the two boys apparently died of drowning since there was over 15 liters of water inside the machine.
The bodies of the boys have been sent for an autopsy.
"The family is inconsolable. The bodies have been sent to Baba Saheb Ambedkar hospital in Rohini for postmortem. Inquest proceedings under Section 174 (police to inquire and report on suicide) of CrPC are underway," said a senior police officer.