KHOST, Afghanistan, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Gas leakage of a heater has claimed the lives of five members of a family in eastern Afghanistan's Khost province on Sunday night, provincial police spokesman Tahir Ehrar said Monday.
According to the official, the family members were sleeping in their apartment, where they used a gas heater to keep themselves warm in the chilly weather, but the gas leakage suffocated and killed eventually.
This is the second incident of similar nature in Khost province over the past couple of weeks.
In the previous incident, four members of a family lost their lives due to a blast of a gas cylinder in their apartment.
In war-ravaged Afghanistan, where there is no central heating system for the people to warm their residents during freezing winter, the locals mostly use traditional wooden stoves and gas heaters to keep houses warm. ■
