THANJAVUR: A six-year-old boy died of suspected suffocation and hyperthermia after accidentally getting locked inside a parked car in Kakkarakkotai Vadakku Natharm village near Orathanadu in Thanjavur district on Sunday.
According to police sources, the victim — Thaman (6), son of farmer G Dhanapal and government school breakfast scheme cook Gomathy — was playing outside his house on Sunday. After the boy did not return for a long time, his family members launched a search, which continued till the evening.
Around 7 pm, the family members found the boy dead inside the locked car of a relative, parked on the same street.
Police sources suggested that the boy, a Class 1 student, might have entered the unlocked car while playing and the doors inadvertently locked behind him. The vehicle was parked under the hot sun and the boy allegedly died of suffocation and hyperthermia, said sources, citing skin peeling on the body, which could have occurred alongside hyperthermia.
Tiruvonam police have registered a case and sent the body to Orathanadu Government Hospital for an autopsy.