Mumbai:
Police are on the lookout for a 19-year-old boy who went absconding after he allegedly killed an eleven-year-old and injured three others in an accident while reversing a car at a housing complex in Kurla last afternoon.
The dead boy's eight-year old sister was also among the injured.
Children from Kapadia Nagar housing society and neighbouring buildings in Kurla (W) were buying golas from a vendor inside the compound when the driver of a Safari lost control and ran over four people, killing one and injuring three. Asif Khan (11), who died on the spot, was there with his sister Fatima (8), who sustained injuries on her left leg.
"We used to go there nearly every Sunday," a morose Fatima, the youngest of ten children in the family, said.
"We were buying the golas when we saw the car approaching us. Asif screamed and I turned but he was already under the car by then. I tried to run but the car hit me too," she added.
"They were inseparable," Asif's elder sister, Saima Khan (18), said. "Asif wanted to be a maulana. He never left his sister's side and cared for her more than he cared about himself."
According to eyewitnesses, the driver was trying to manoeuvre the car along the service road that flanks the society and tried to drive up a slope. However, he lost control of the vehicle, which rolled backwards, broke the society's wall and hit the children.
"We heard screams and came running," Salauddin Khan, chairman of building 5 at Kapadia Nagar, said. "The gola vendor comes here often and is popular among the children."
While Fatima is undergoing treatment at Noor Hospital, Rehan Chaudhary (12) and Shirazuddin Qazi (18), were rushed to Habib Hospital in Kurla. "We were unable to retrieve proper papers or any other form of identification from the car and have approached the RTO to find out who the car was registered with," said an officer with the Kurla police.