Like many mothers, Rajeshwari Karnan was delighted when she gave birth to a son. The 23-year-old farm labourer and her husband, Karnan Perumal, 26, already had a two-year-old daughter, but like many in the state of Tamil Nadu, they considered a boy a particular blessing.

So when Rahul arrived in May, they were especially delighted.

However, just over a week later, their joy turned to misery.

One day Rajeshwari Karnan suddenly heard her baby Rahul (pictured) screaming from inside the hut. She ran towards him, but before she could get there, a neighbour shouted ‘Your baby is on fire!’

One afternoon, says Rajeshwari, she was washing her daughter when she suddenly heard Rahul screaming from inside the hut. She ran towards him, but before she could get there, a neighbour shouted to her the words she will never forget: ‘Your baby is on fire!’

‘There was a flame on his belly and his right knee,’ Rajeshwari told the New York Times last week, ‘and my husband rushed with a towel to put it off [sic]. I got very scared.’

The couple immediately took their son to hospital, but the doctors were mystified.

Later, the parents returned home, hoping this bizarre and disturbing occurrence would not repeat itself.

But it has done — three more times, according to the couple. The last incident took place one afternoon last month, with their little boy suffering first and second-degree burns. As a result, the family have now been forced to move from their village, due to their neighbours’ fears that the baby could cause a serious fire.

This month, the couple took the child to be examined at a hospital in the city of Chennai, where the doctors are equally baffled.

Foul play appears to have been ruled out, with Karnan Perumal saying that he and his wife would never be ‘crazy [enough] to burn our own baby’.

Some people are saying the flames must be the work of a deity, while others suspect the use of combustible phosphorous in the  materials used to build the couple’s home.

Doctors are now considering whether baby Rahul is a victim of one of the strangest and most mysterious of phenomena said to affect the body – spontaneous human combustion

But the doctors are now considering whether baby Rahul is a victim of one of the strangest and most mysterious of phenomena said to affect the body — spontaneous human combustion.

‘We are in a dilemma and haven’t come to any conclusion,’ says Dr Narayan Babu. ‘The parents have held that the baby burned instantaneously without any provocation. We are carrying out numerous tests. We are not saying it is SHC (spontaneous human  combustion) until all the investigations  are complete.’

Is it really possible for a baby to burst suddenly into flames? And if so, how on earth does it happen — and could other infants elsewhere in the world fall victim to the same extraordinary circumstances?

Although spontaneous combustion has been written about for centuries, there are many who are sceptical about its existence. All too often, when presented with the grisly image of a pile of human ash with only the legs remaining, the doubters will insist that the victim probably died from falling asleep with a cigarette, or was sitting too near a fire.

Such explanations may seem reasonable, but they ignore the fact that human bodies are extremely hard to burn. We are composed largely of water. And the bits of us that aren’t damp — especially our bones — require a huge and  sustained amount of heat to reduce to ash.

Read more: Metro Newsday