Chennai: In a tragic incident, a father and his son were charred to death and three others sustained burns, when a fire broke out in a cracker shop at Pethakallupalli village at Vaniyambadi in Tirupattur district of Tamil Nadu on Sunday afternoon.

Police sources said 45-year-old R.Kumar, who has been running the fire cracker shop in the village for the past few years, and his son K.Dayalamurthy (12) opened the shop after a few customers came to buy crackers, when the crackers suddenly burst into flames.

The fire spread to the entire shop and both the father and son sustained severe burns and were charred to death on the spot.

Two employees of the shop, R.Velayudham (57) and S.Raman (36), who were arranging the crackers sustained burns and were rushed
to the hospital.

The bodies of the victims were taken to Vaniyambdi Government hospital for post mortem.

The fire was so intense due to the huge volume of crackers stored in the shop and the locals found it difficult to douse it.

On information, fire fighting units and police personnel rushed to the spot and put out the blaze after battling hard for more than an hour.

District Superintendent of Police K.Balakrishnan said the cause of the fire was being investigated.