Police had exhumed the bodies for a post-mortem, senior police officer said.(Representational)

Two siblings died from asphyxia after allegedly being locked in a steel trunk in Khamariya area, police said Friday.

The incident came to light when their father, Mallu Ansari, who worked in a carpet factory, returned home late Thursday night and found the children and his wife missing, senior police officer Rajesh S said.

Later, he was seen running to a hospital with his unconscious children, where Hataina, 6 and her brother Hasan, 3 were declared dead, he said.

The locals, who found the steel trunk open and clothes scattered around it, suspected that their "mentally unstable" mother had locked them in it, leading to their death.

But, the police team, which questioned the mother, found her to be of sound mind, the senior police officer said.

Police had exhumed the bodies for a post-mortem examination, the senior police officer said.