CHENNAI: A hide and seek game proved fatal for an eight-year-old girl as she was suffocated while hiding in a wooden box at her house at Tiruvanmiyur on Friday afternoon. Dhanasree and her sister Saralatha, 5, were playing with other neighbourhood children. Dhanasree had told her sister to join her in hiding in the wooden box that was kept outside their house. Though the box was small, the duo managed to get inside. As soon as they got inside, the box automatically got locked. Though, the girls tried to push the door from inside they could not escape, said the investigation officer.
The girls’ father Tirupathi, came at noon for lunch and searched for them for over an hour. “A few neighbours had said they had seen the girls playing hide and seek. Tirupathi checked the wooden box and found the duo were unconscious,” the officer said.
The two were rushed to a government hospital where Dhanasree was declared ‘brought dead’. Saralatha is undergoing treatment at a hospital. Tirupathi works in the house keeping department in a travel agency, while his wife Bhuvaneswari also does the same work in another company. The family resided in the second floor of a housing board quarters on Sixth Main Road, Tiruvanmiyur. Police said the parents leave for work at 8.30 am and return only by 7 pm. Tiruvanmiyur police registered a case and further investigation is on.