Chennai building fire: Bedsheet acts as life saver for 10-yr old boy thrown down

Chennai: A 10-year old boy escaped with fractures after the bedsheet held by 50 odd people as a spring board enabled his father to throw him down from a building during a fire mishap.

The chubby looking Christo was flung from the second floor to escape the engulfing smoke that killed four people.

However, the cloth apparently could not take his weight and gave away resulting in two broken legs for the lad.

The incident happened at the Vadapalani apartment complex in Chennai that saw four of its residents choke to death.

The boy's father John Christopher said when he opened the door to see what the commotion was about, the smoke entered the house. However, help was waiting outside.

"There were about 50 persons holding a bedsheet and asking me to throw my son down to enable him escape from smoke" he told reporters.

Christo did fall on the bedsheet, but it tore and resulted in his suffering fractured legs following the fall, Christopher added.

"Fortunately he fell on his legs and not on his head. Otherwise he may not have escaped (from death)," Christopher said.

The other occupants managed their way out, he added.

Earlier, four persons including two children were killed after a fire caused by a suspected short circuit resulted in smoke suffocating them to death.