Two people died of asphyxiation in Patarasi Rural Municipality of Jumla district on Tuesday.

Twenty-two-year-old Maya Laxmi Mahatara, and her sister Junmaya Rokaya, 19, died while undergoing treatment at the Karnali College of Health Sciences.

The victim’s relatives had found them lying unconscious at their home and rushed them to the hospital on Monday morning.

The incident occurred after the siblings suffocated from smoke while they were heating up oil for Mahatara and her 11-day-old baby, police said.

“It has been found that they [the victims] suffocated due to a fire that was lit to heat fenugreek in the oil,” Deputy Superintendent of Police Chhedilal Kamati said.

The elder sister died on Monday while the 19-year-old succumbed on Tuesday morning, police said.

The infant is undergoing treatment in the intensive care unit of the same hospital, Kamati added.