It was a providential escape for four individuals of a family after their BMW car caught fire in Bengaluru. No injuries were reported in the incident which happened on Saturday.
Mohammed Irshad, a resident of Bagalagunte in Bengaluru, was travelling in his BMW 5 series along with his wife and two children, when a motorist passing by alerted him to smoke that was emanating from the back of the vehicle. Mohammed and his wife, who were seated in the front, were able to immediately get out, but the two children were stuck as the back doors weren’t opening.
The two children were subsequently pulled out through the front doors minutes after which the car burst into flames. Traffic police in the vicinity and passersby stopped to help the family retrieve their belongings from the car.
According to reports, the incident took place on Saturday night at around 7.30 pm near 8th Mile Cross in Bengaluru’s Peenya neighbourhood.
A fire brigade was called to the location by the traffic police; they quickly put out the fire. As per reports, initial investigations revealed that the car had been parked in the family’s home for a long time and had not been used. The family was reportedly on their way to distribute blankets to poor people living on footpaths and bus stands. They had only driven for about a kilometre when the motorcyclist drew their attention to the smoke coming from the back of the car.
Bagalagunte police are investigating the incident.
It was in the last week of November that a woman from Hyderabad had died in Karnataka’s Bidar district after a car that she had been travelling in caught fire. The 39-year-old was travelling back to Hyderabad from Udgir in Maharashtra, when the incident occurred.