Bengaluru: As many as five suffered burns, including four children when a ballon filled with Helium gas came in contact an electric wire and caught bursted.

The balloon caught fire, causing injuries to people attending a birthday party here on Saturday night. The victim were identified as HAL employees Vijay Aditya Kumar, 44, Dhyan Chandra, 7, Ishan, 2, Sanjay, 8, and Sohila, 3.

According to police, the incident took place at Vijay Kumar’s residence in Belathur, KR Puram. at 9:30 pm when the children had gathered at Vijay’s house to celebrate his daughter’s birthday.

Police said that while Vijay’s daughter went to drink milk, other children were playing with balloons that exploded when they touched an electric wire, causing a fire to break out, injuring all five people present in the living room.

Following the incident, the victims were immidiately taken to the a nearby hospital for treatment. However, the victims were later shifted to Victoria Hospital.

Kadugodi police registered a case and started investigation. One officer said: “There was a sparkle candle which was still burning, and as the ‘helium’ balloon went up and came in contact with the electric wire, there was a blast and the fire spread.”

A police officer suspected that the balloon might have been filled with hydrogen instead of helium, which could have caused the incident.

“Helium is an inert gas and does not react with any other substance. Even when exposed to a flame or heat source, the balloon will explode like any other regular inflated balloon. While hydrogen is a flammable gas and it has the ability to spread fire,” the official said. DCP (Whitefield) Sanjeev M Patil said he registered the case based on the statement of the complainant. “We will check whether the balloon is filled with helium or hydrogen,” he added.