India, Jan. 7 -- A family of three, including a nine-year-old girl, died in a fire as they were sleeping after their heater allegedly exploded at a government accommodation in north Delhi's Mukundpur early on Tuesday. With their bodies found still in bed and no signs of a struggle, police suspect they were first knocked unconscious by the smoke and then burned to death.

Police identified the victims as 45-year-old Ajay Vimal, an assistant section engineer with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), his wife, Neelam (43), and daughter, Anvi.

The fire, at a fifth-floor one-bedroom flat in Metro Apartments, a residential colony for DMRC employees opposite Majlis Park Metro station, was reported at 2:39 am, police said.

A police officer ...