A three-year-old girl was crushed to death under the wheels of an SUV after she took a nap in a car park to shelter from a 37-degree heatwave.
Disturbing CCTV footage shows how the girl – named only as Laxmi in local media in Hyderabad, India – was curled up on a blanket in the covered parking spot.
The footage – filmed on 24th May – goes on to show what appears to be a white Skoda 4X4 turn into the car park.
The driver – apparently unable to see the girl from their high driving position – shockingly appears to hit her with the vehicle’s right forward wheel.
The vehicle can then be seen reversing after coming to a stop against the young girl’s prone body.
Police say they were alerted to the tragedy by the girl’s mother, named as 22-year-old Kavitha.
She had reportedly come to the city with her children to look for work and had been working on the apartment block, which is under construction, since the early morning.
She said that she had lunch with her son Basawa Raju, 6, and her daughter Laxmi at around 2:30pm.
Later her daughter went for a nap out of the punishing heat.
Kavitha reportedly told the police that the SUV ran over her daughter at 3pm and that she died on the spot.
The police investigation is ongoing. There were no reports of any arrests being made at the time of writing.
May is on average the hottest month of the year in Hyderabad, with temperatures regularly hitting the high 30s Celsius.
