Boy trying to avoid heat suffocates to death inside locked car

A 12-year-old ragpicker, who was trying to protect himself from heat by taking shelter in a parked car, suffocated to death apparently after the doors of the vehicle got locked automatically, police said Wednesday.

The incident occurred Tuesday in Aalewadi village in Akola district of Maharashtra.

A police official said the car had not been used for the past two years due to some technical defect. It was parked by its owner in the bushes.

Talking about the incident, the official said the deceased Tanesh Ballal had come to the area in the afternoon with his grandmother to collect plastic waste.

He might entered the car to take shelter from heat, but got trapped inside as doors might have got locked, he said, adding that Ballal's grandmother kept looking for him the entire day.

"In the night, when the owner of the car opened its door, he found a boy lying motionless inside," the official said, adding that the boy was later identified as Ballal.

A case has been registered in Dahihada police station and further investigation is underway.

Akola district, which is part of Vidarbha region in east Maharashtra, has been reeling under intense heat for the last three days.