Mumbai, Jun 29 (IANS): In a bizarre incident, a car which was reportedly not serviced for long, suddenly caught fire after the owner switched off the engine and stepped out, officials said here on Monday.

The incident happened late on Sunday at the Ushakiran Building and the fire brigade which rushed there saw the entire vehicle burning in the parking lot.

They immediately deployed two high pressure jets and managed to extinguish the blazing vehicle within minutes.

Enquiries with the vehicle owner revealed that he returned home from outside and was parking it when he noticed some smoke emanating from the engine.

He immediately switched off the engine and jumped out to safety, unhurt, even as the vehicle was suddenly engulfed in flames.

After verifying his statements and checking the CCTV footage of the parking area, it was concluded that the probable cause of the blaze was a "defective electric circuit", said a fire brigade officer.

Since many vehicles are lying unused during the past over three months of lockdown, the Mumbai Fire Brigade has advised people to check for any damage caused by rodents, especially to the electrical wiring which can cause such a fire.

The fire brigade also dismissed social media rumours that there was a sanitiser in the vehicle which allegedly resulted in the fire.