Two children aged six and three have died in Kasungu after sustaining burns when their house caught fire while they were sleeping.
Kasungu Police Station Public Relations Officer for Inspector Harry Namwaza identified the children as Rashid Banda aged 6 and Tasiyana Banda aged 3, from Chibwalo village, Traditional Authority Khongoni in Lilongwe.
Namwaza said the tragedy occurred on Tuesday at Chikuyu village about 3 Kilometres from Dwangwa Trading Centre.
According to Namwaza, the children were living with their father since their mother and father separated in February this year.
On Tuesday night, the father Levison Banda went out, leaving the two children sleeping alone in the house.
When he returned, it is alleged that he carried a bunch of burning grass which he wanted to use as light to check on the children if all was well with them.
As he was in the house, the roof of the house caught fire.
Banda left the children in the house in order to get water which he wanted to use to put out the fire.
This didn’t help since by the time he returned the fire had become fierce that no one could enter into the house to rescue the children.
When surrounding community members came they started shouting and calling the names of the children to come.
The two children managed to come out after which they were rushed to Kasungu District Hospital where they have died today whilst receiving treatment.
Postmortem conducted revealed that the two children have died due to excessive tissue damage.
