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Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday paid his condolences to the families of four men from Thiruvananthapuram who were killed in a road accident last week.

The men, who were reportedly contractual construction workers from Kerala, were on their way to the Velankanni pilgrimage.

Mr Tharoor, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, met the grieving families and posted about his visit on X (formerly Twitter).

“One of the emotionally painful responsibilities of a constituency MP is paying condolence visits to the bereaved. Visited the homes of each of the four young men from Neyyattinkara Taluka who were killed in a highway accident on the way to Velankanni last week,” he wrote.

The accident occurred on May 4.

According to reports, seven friends from Thiruvananthapuram and the nearby areas were heading to the Velankanni shrine in Tamil Nadu in a car.

The car reportedly lost control after crossing a barricade and collided with a bus head-on. The vehicle was mangled due to the force of the impact.

Police confirmed that four of the men died on the spot due to the force of the crash, while three others sustained critical injuries and were rushed to a hospital.

Shortly after a fire broke out in a home in the busy market area near Hyderabad’s Charminar, local residents rushed in as first responders and started bringing out those trapped inside. Zahir, who has a bangle business, was among them. Speaking to NDTV in the aftermath of the tragedy, which left 17 people of a family dead, he described a heartbreaking sight: a woman had embraced her children in a last-ditch attempt to protect them from the flames. They were charred in that last embrace.

“We managed to get inside shortly after the fire started. The flames were huge. Inside the room, a woman had hugged children. She was dead,” Zahir said.

According to the information so far, the fire appears to have started due to an electrical problem and the victims were caught unawares because they were sleeping. The nature of construction proved to be a major obstacle in rescue work. Most shops in this market are at least a century old, and rooms are constructed on top of them. There is a row of windows on top of the line of shops and most of these windows are presumably closed at night when air-conditioners are on. In the case of a fire, this would lead to a massive build-up of smoke in the small rooms. Another problem is the single, narrow entry point to access the rooms.

According to police, four children, all aged below 10 years, entered a parked car while playing. The car doors were locked, trapping them inside.

In a heart-wrenching tragedy, four children suffocated to death inside a locked car in Andhra Pradesh’s Vijayanagaram district on Sunday.

The tragedy struck Dwarapudi village under Vijayanagaram Cantonment.

According to police, four children, all aged below 10 years, entered a parked car while playing. The car doors were locked, trapping them inside.

The incident came to light after the parents of the children launched a frantic search for them after they were not seen since morning. Eventually, their bodies were found in a car parked near the local Mahila Mandali office.

Uday, 8, Charumati, 8, Charishma, 6, and Manasvi, 6, had gone out to play on Sunday morning. Charumati and Charishma were sisters, while the two others were their friends. When they did not return home for a long time, their parents began searching for them.

As the doors of the car parked in the area were not locked, the children opened them and sat in the vehicle. The doors then got accidentally locked, trapping them inside. All four died of suffocation.

The death of four children plunged the village into a gloom.

This is the second such incident in Telugu states in the last month. In April, two girls died of suffocation after getting trapped in a locked car in Telangana’s Ranga Reddy district.

The incident had occurred in Damaragidda village in Chevella mandal. Two cousins, aged four and five, who had come to attend a relative’s wedding, entered a parked car while playing outside the house. The car doors accidentally locked, trapping the children inside for a prolonged period in the rising heat.

Family members began searching for the girls after they had been missing for a long time. They were eventually found unconscious in the vehicle and rushed to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared them dead.

Meanwhile, in another tragedy in the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, three children drowned in a pit filled with rainwater on Sunday.

The incident occurred in Devarajapuram of Kuppam mandal. The deceased were identified as Shalini, 5, Ashwin, 6, and Gautami, 8.

The focus of the meeting will be on flood preparedness, emergency response, and infrastructure resilience in light of the prevailing weather conditions.

With the onset of southwest monsoon rain in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin is set to chair a high-level review meeting on Monday to assess the state’s preparedness and discuss precautionary measures.

The meeting will be held at the Secretariat. According to official sources, the review session will be attended by Revenue and Disaster Management Minister K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran, Chief Secretary Shiv Das Meena, and other senior officials from key departments, including public works, municipal administration, and the meteorological services.

The focus of the meeting will be on flood preparedness, emergency response, and infrastructure resilience in light of the prevailing weather conditions.

The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Chennai has forecast light to moderate rainfall in several parts of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and Karaikal until May 23, attributing the weather to an atmospheric circulation currently active over the southeastern Bay of Bengal.

Chennai has already begun experiencing moderate showers since early Monday morning.

Several areas in the city — including Egmore, Velachery, Guindy, Madipakkam, Saidapet, and T. Nagar — reported steady rainfall, providing relief from the recent heatwave but also causing minor disruptions in traffic movement during peak hours.

The Greater Chennai Corporation and other civic bodies have been alerted to step up stormwater drain clearance and ensure quick removal of waterlogging to avoid flooding in low-lying areas.

Officials are also likely to brief the Chief Minister on the status of desilting operations and the readiness of emergency response teams in vulnerable zones.

Meanwhile, district administrations across the state have been asked to remain vigilant and keep flood shelters, medical aid, and essential supplies ready in case of heavy downpours or related emergencies.

With more showers anticipated in the coming days, the state government is expected to announce a set of precautionary guidelines following the review meeting, especially for urban centres and flood-prone districts.

The meeting will be held at the Secretariat. According to official sources, the review session will be attended by Revenue and Disaster Management Minister K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran, Chief Secretary Shiv Das Meena, and other senior officials from key departments, including public works, municipal administration, and the meteorological services.

The focus of the meeting will be on flood preparedness, emergency response, and infrastructure resilience in light of the prevailing weather conditions.

The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Chennai has forecast light to moderate rainfall in several parts of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and Karaikal until May 23, attributing the weather to an atmospheric circulation currently active over the southeastern Bay of Bengal.

Chennai has already begun experiencing moderate showers since early Monday morning.

Several areas in the city — including Egmore, Velachery, Guindy, Madipakkam, Saidapet, and T. Nagar — reported steady rainfall, providing relief from the recent heatwave but also causing minor disruptions in traffic movement during peak hours.

The Greater Chennai Corporation and other civic bodies have been alerted to step up stormwater drain clearance and ensure quick removal of waterlogging to avoid flooding in low-lying areas.

Officials are also likely to brief the Chief Minister on the status of desilting operations and the readiness of emergency response teams in vulnerable zones.

Meanwhile, district administrations across the state have been asked to remain vigilant and keep flood shelters, medical aid, and essential supplies ready in case of heavy downpours or related emergencies.

With more showers anticipated in the coming days, the state government is expected to announce a set of precautionary guidelines following the review meeting, especially for urban centres and flood-prone districts.

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