4-yr-old boy dies at Kerala's Konni elephant camp after concrete pillar falls on him

Pathanamthitta(Kerala): A holiday trip to the Konni Elephant Training Centre here on the occasion of Good Friday turned into a tragedy for a family from Kadampanad in this south Kerala district as a four-year-old child in their group died when a concrete pillar at the site fell on him.

The incident occurred in the afternoon at the Elephant Training Centre when the child caught hold of the short pillar, one of several installed there, and began swinging around it as his mother was taking photographs of him, police said.

An officer of Konni police station said that the mud at the base of that particular pillar had probably washed away in the rains and as the child started swinging around it, it loosened and fell on him, causing severe injuries to his head.

The boy was rushed to a nearby hospital and then to another one in Pathanamthitta, but he died by the time they reached there, the officer said.

A case of unnatural death was registered and inquest proceedings were carried out, he added.

The body was then sent for postmortem, the officer said.