Ranchi, March 15 (IANS): At least four people were charred to death in a car in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh district Saturday, police said.

According to police the car was found on the National Highway near Padaria village situated in the district, about 110 km from the state capital Ranchi.

Locals informed the police about the incident in the morning.

"Four people have been charred to death. The bodies are beyond recognition. We cannot even identify whether they are men or women. We have called a forensic team and dog squad to carry out investigation," a police officer told IANS.

"There are two possibilities, either these people were locked inside the car and petrol was poured on it and they were burnt to death or, they were killed somewhere else and brought in the car and burnt to mitigate the evidence," the officer added.

Police are also trying to trace the owner of the car. The dead bodies have been sent for post-mortem.