Ner Chowk: Five of a family, including three woman and a child, have died in a massive fire that broke out in a residential building at Ner Chowk in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh early today morning.

The deceased have been identified as Narender Soni (66), Veena Soni (62), Sudesh Sohal (70), Mona (40) and her son Sahil (8).

The incident took place around 4:30 AM, when most of people in the house were sleeping.

The cause of incident is stated to be short circuit, and it’s reported that a LPG cylinder burst after it came into the contact of fire.

Local tried to douse the fire and also informed the local police and fire brigade, who rushed to the spot to douse the fire. However their all efforts goes in vain as massive fire engulfed the building.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has expressed deep grief over the death of five people in a fire incident at Ner Chowk in Mandi district on Monday morning. He today met the bereaved family members at their residence at Ner Chowk and expressed his heartfelt condolences with them.

The Chief Minister assured to provide all possible assistance to the victims kin. He said that the cause of the fire would be probed.