4 year old dies after fall from third floor

Khadija, was standing on a chair in the balcony of her home trying to get a better view of the road, when the mishap took place. The child who was attempting to see the vehicles and people moving below, craned her neck through the gaps in the cement grill of the three-feet balcony wall and fell. 

Upon hearing her screams, neighbours rushed out to see the child lying in a pool of blood. The incident took place at 5.30 pm and she was rushed to a private hospital in Mannadi and later shifted to Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital where she passed away by 9.45 pm. 

Khadija’s father Ali Askar (35) was at his hardware shop in Mannadi when the mishap took place, while the child was under the care of her mother Rahida (30) who had left her unattended to do some work. The family lived in Shebam complex in Broadway Main Road. 

The Esplanade police have registered a case under the CrPC Section 174 (unnatural death). The child’s body was handed over to her parents after an autopsy. 

In the recent past, similar incidents of toddlers falling from the balcony have been reported allegedly due to the negligence of the parents. On 11 December, an eighteenmonth-old baby fell from the balcony of the fourth floor at Pallikaranai while she was peeping down through the gaps in the parapet grill. The child was rushed to Kamatchi Hospital where she succumbed. 

In an unrelated incident, a two-and-a-half-year-old child Kavanya Shree survived a fall on 18 November from the first-floor balcony at Nattu Subrayan Street in Mylapore. The child sescaped with injuries.