HYDERABAD: A nine-year-old boy died in a lift accident at an apartment in Panchavati Colony in Manikonda here on Sunday.
The tragedy occurred when the boy, who was playing around the lift on the fourth floor, opened its door and looked up as the lift was descending. The lift hit the boy’s head and took him down, crushing him to death on the ground floor.
The boy, Sheshabatta Dhanush, and his elder sister Vyshnavi were playing when Dhanush suddenly went to the door of the lift.
On seeing him open it, she rushed to stop him, but the lift took him down by then.
The boy fell 50 ft as the lift drove him down, while the scared girl screamed for help.
On hearing Vyshnavi’s cries, residents of the building gathered.
They later switched off the power supply and pulled Dhanush out, but he was dead by then.
Vyshnavi became motionless, while her parents and other siblings were inconsolable.
The entire community was in a state of shock.
Inquiries revealed that there was a defect in the protective doors of the lift for the past few days, but none of the residents brought it to the notice of the builder.
The boy’s parents, Sheshabatta Hemantachary, a priest, and Priya, recently moved into their flat at PVS Lake View Apartment along with four children.
The incident happened around 4 pm when Priya was busy with household chores and two of the boys were playing indoors.
The incident happened when the lift came to the fourth floor from the ground level, and in an attempt to get in, Dhanush opened the safety door.
But by then, the lift had moved to the fifth floor, and the door Dhanush pulled should not have opened.
Curious, the boy bent in and looked up. As the lift began descending, his head was in its path. The lift hit his head and he lost balance and fell.
The descending lift then crushed the nine-year-old.
The maintenance staff did not notice that the doors of the lift could be opened even when the lift was not on that particular floor.
The Raidurgam police have registered a case of suspicious death and have launched a probe into the incident.