Three-year-old twins drown in washing machine after being left alone ‘for six minutes’
Police are investigating the tragic incident
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A family’s three-year-old twins have died in India after drowning in a washing machine when their mother left the house for a matter of minutes.
The twin boys, named locally as Nishant and Nakshya, were found by their father in the family’s washing machine after he and his wife had spent over half an hour looking for them at their home in Rohini, Delhi, on Saturday.
The boys’ mother, named by local media as Rakhi, had filled the washing machine with 12-15 litres of water earlier in the day and had left the twins playing together in the house at around 12:30pm.
She had stepped out momentarily to buy washing detergent, the Hindustan Times reported. When she returned around “six minutes later” she could not find the children and a neighbour called the police.
The children’s father, named only as Ravinder, immediately returned home to help with the search and found the children in the washing machine.
“Mr Ravinder immediately took the children to a nearby family hospital where doctors declared them dead,” a senior police official told IANS news agency. “Shocked father could not believe and took [the children] to Jaipur Golden Hospital where doctors declared them dead,” he added.
The mother told police she had left piles of clothes next to the washing machine. Police said the children may have climbed onto the clothes to look inside the top-loading machine and accidentally fallen in.
“It appears that one of the kids first climbed the heap [of clothes] to see what was inside the machine and fell inside head on,” MN Tiwari, the deputy commissioner of police in Rohini, said. “The second child must have followed his brother. Since both of them fell head on, they were choked. There was no way they could have come out,” he said.
The couple’s third child, a 10-year-old, was reportedly at school at the time of the incident.
“The family is inconsolable,” a senior police officer told NDTV.
The children’s bodies have been sent for an autopsy and deputy commissioner Tiwari said his officers found no evidence of foul play, though an inquiry is likely to be conducted into the children’s deaths, The Indian Express reported.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments