A 30-year-old woman and her 4-year-old son were charred to death in their car in the basement parking lot of their apartment complex in Whitefield.
The deceased are Neha Verma and her son Param, residents of Nallurahalli in Whitefield.
Neha was a homemaker and wife of Rajesh, a businessman. The family lived at the Sumadhura Apartment in Nallurahalli and Rajesh's office was at Diamond District in Domlur, the police said.
CCTV footage showed the car that was parked in its regular slot suddenly go up in flames like in a blast after smoke emanated from the bonnet.
The incident, according to the CCTV data, occurred at 3.40 pm and the car was engulfed in fire within minutes. The car was a 2009 model Maruti Ritz.
The security guards and residents who rushed to the basement after hearing the blast assumed that there was no one in the car.
Only after the Fire and Emergency Services rushed to the spot and doused the fire did they realise that the woman and her son were charred in the vehicle.
Neha was in the driver's seat while Param was on the seat next to her. Neha's body was burnt beyond recognition, fire officials said.
"We received a call from one Kamal at 3.55 pm and within seven minutes, we covered the seven-kilometre stretch to reach the spot. But by the time we arrived, the entire car was already burnt," district fire officer Revanna Sidappa Putti told DH.
According to the police, Neha and Param had gone out while Rajesh was at work. The mother-son duo had returned to the apartment around 3.30 pm and had parked the car when it caught fire.
Four security guards and many residents rushed towards the car to put out the fire, but in vain. Around 190 families live in the apartment complex.
The Fire and Emergency Service personnel and the police are puzzled over the cause of the fire.
Experts from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) visited the spot and collected samples.
A case has been registered at the Whitefield police station.