Six of family found dead in car, police suspect suicide

THE MAN WHO DIED LAST TOLD A PASSERBY THAT THE FAMILY WAS UNDER FINANCIAL DURESS AND THAT THE MEMBERS HAD DIED BY SUICIDE, POLICE SAID

- Press Trust of India

CHANDIGARH: Six members of a family, three of them children, were found dead inside a car in Haryana's Panchkula, while one more died on his way to a hospital, police said on Tuesday, suspecting a suicide pact.

The car was spotted late last night by a passerby, who even exchanged a few words with the family member who died last.

Police identified one of the deceased as a 41-year-old man, the others as his wife, the couple's three minor children, two of them girls, both twins, and his parents.

The car bearing a Dehradun registration plate was found parked on a roadside in a residential area in Panchkula's Sector 27.

Puneet Rana, a local, told reporters that he was out on a walk with another person and spotted the car around 10 pm with a towel hanging out from one of its doors.

He said he found the car unlocked and opened one of the doors. The man inside, he said, told him that he could not get a hotel room returning from a Bageshwar Dham event in Panchkula, so he and his family were sleeping in the car.

Rana said when he pointed a torch he had in his hand at the glass, he saw six people lying motionless on each other with vomit on them.

The seventh, the man he was speaking to, was breathing with difficulty.