Nanjangud: Two girls, who were hiding inside an empty ice cream freezer box while playing ‘hide and seek’ game, were suffocated to death after the lid of the freezer box got locked from outside. The incident took place at Masage village in the taluk yesterday.

The deceased girls are Bhagya (12), daughter of Nagaraja Nayaka and Chikkadevamma couple and Kavya (7), daughter of Raja Nayaka and Gowramma couple, both residents of Masage village.

One Hanumantha Nayaka of Tagadur village, who was operating an ice cream parlour in front of Nagaraja Nayaka’s house in Masage village, had stopped the business since last six months and had kept the empty freezer box in front of Nagaraja Nayaka’s house.

Yesterday about 10 am, a group of girls including Bhagya

and Kavya was playing ‘hide and seek’ game and the two girls reportedly got into the freezer box to hide from others and closed the lid during which the lid got locked from outside.

Unable to open the air tight freezer box from inside, the two girls were suffocated to death inside the box. But the other girls on noticing Bhagya and Kavya missing, assumed that they had returned home and they too went back to their houses, it is learnt.

As Bhagya and Kavya did not return home even in the afternoon, their parents went in search of them but in vain. The parents later enquired with other girls during which the girls told them that they were playing ‘hide and seek’ game and did not know where Bhagya and Kavya went.

After searching for the two girls at various places, the parents of the two girls opened the freezer box on suspicion and saw the girls lying lifeless inside it. They immediately lifted the girls from the box but the two girls had died by then.

The inconsolable parents of the two girls performed the last rites at the village.

Meanwhile, Nanjangud Rural Circle Inspector Shivananja Shetty, speaking to SOM, said that the Police came to know about the incident through messages in social media and added that even the parents had performed the last rites of the two girls.

The Inspector further stated that no one has lodged a complaint and no case has been registered in this regard.