Alipurduar: Three members of a family were charred to death and another was injured after a fire broke out in their house in Alipurduar district, police said on Tuesday (August 13).

Neighbours alerted the fire brigade after noticing smoke billowing out of the house of one Dilip Burman at Hashimara in the early hours of Tuesday following which two fire tenders arrived at the spot to douse the blaze.

The fire could be extinguished after three hours, police said.

The deceased were identified as Gita Burman, her daughter Susmita Burman (11) and son Dipu Burman (11), the police said adding Dilip Burman was admitted to hospital with burn injuries.

The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, they added.

In a similar incident, a family of four including two minor girls was charred to death in West Bengal's Hooghly district, on March 29. The exact cause of the fire could not be ascertained. Surat Ali (42), his wife Rajina Bibi (36), daughters Arfin Yasmin (13) and Asiyana Khatun (6) were burnt inside their house in Chandanpur area," an officer of Chinsurah Police station said.

He mentioned that Ali was undergoing treatment for some mental problems and there is no suspicion of an outsider setting the house on fire.

"Till the source of fire is identified and other details are clarified, it is difficult to ascertain the exact sequence of events," he added.