A birthday celebration turned tragic as five people, including four children, sustained severe burns after a helium balloon they were carrying came in contact with an electric wire and exploded, followed by a fire at a house in Belathur in Kadugodi on Saturday night.
The injured have been identified as Vijay Aditya Kumar, 44, an employee with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, his two sons, Dhyanchand (7), a class I student, and Sohila (3), Ishan Lokesh (2) and Sanjay Shivakumar (8) a class III student.
According to the police, the incident took place at Vijay Kumar’s residence in Belathur, K.R. Puram, at 9.30 p.m. when the kids had assembled to celebrate his daughter’s birthday. While the birthday girl went to drink milk, children were coming down from the terrace with gas-filled balloons in their hands. As one of them came in contact with a live electric wire close to the house, it exploded, following which there was a fire.
The neighbours rushed the injured to a nearby hospital from there shifted to Victoria Hospital, where they are being treated at the burns ward. Sources said all are out of danger. Sanjeev M. Patil, DCP (Whitefield), said they had taken up a case and were probing further.
