Man saves wife, 2 kids from burning car, dies

Coimbatore: A 38-year-old man on Sunday saved his wife and two children from his burning car here, but himself died in the fire as he could not undo his seat belt on time, the police said.

Dileep Kumar, a Bengaluru-based jeweller, along with his family was going to Kochi from the city when his car's engine suddenly caught fire near a toll gate at Madukkarai area early on Sunday morning, they said.

He managed to push his wife and two children out of the car. However, he could not unfasten his seat belt on time and was burnt to death as the flames spread rapidly, the police said.

The woman and her children are fine and the matter is being investigated, they said.

In Phagwara, a woman allegedly killed her two daughters by throwing them into a pond in village Kishanpur near Chaheru here and then tried to end her own life, the police said.

She tried to hang herself to a tree with a dupatta but the branch could not bear her weight, SHO Inspector Lakhvir Singh said.

Before she could make the second attempt, the village watchman noticed it and raised an alarm, he said. However, her two daughters, aged 3 and 1, did not survive, he said. The woman was arrested and was booked under section 302 (pertaining to murder) of the IPC, the SHO said.

He said the woman belonged to Tejpur in Assam. Her husband had allegedly deserted her a few days ago on the pretext that the two girls were not his daughters, the woman told the police, Singh said.