Pregnant woman, husband die as car catches fire in Kerala

In a tragic incident, a pregnant woman and her husband were charred to death when the car in which they were travelling caught fire near the district government hospital here on Thursday, police said.

The victims have been identified as Prijith (35) and his wife Reesha (26), hailing from Kuttiattoor in the district.

The incident occurred when the car was proceeding to the hospital with Reesha who complained of labour pain, they said.

Immediately after getting the information, the fire and rescue officials rushed to the spot and extinguished the fire completely and pulled out Prijith and Reesha, but they were already dead.

Six people were travelling in the car and four of them including a child who were sitting in the rear seat escaped when the vehicle caught fire.

The co-passengers of the victims have been shifted to a hospital, they added.

”They are not injured. They are in the hospital and they are getting checked,” Kannur city police Commissioner Ajit Kumar told reporters after visiting the accident site.

It appears that the victims got trapped inside the burning car–a 2020 model Maruti S-Presso–as they could not open its front door, he said.

According to locals, the woman who died was pregnant and they tried to rescue the couple by opening the front door of the car but failed.

TV footage showed the locals present at the spot running towards the burning car to rescue the hapless couple who got stuck inside it.

”We were totally helpless at that time as the front side of the car was immediately engulfed in fire. We could not do much to save them as we feared that the oil tank of the car will explode at any time,” an eyewitness told the media.

The reasons for the fire could be ascertained only after verification by technical experts.

”The car will be properly examined with the help of experts. Let us investigate a little more and then we will be able to get a clear picture,” police said.P