Lorry runs over sleeping labourers, 3 die

Chennai: Three young contract labourers sleeping beneath a lorry were crushed to death and another was injured when the driver reversed the vehicle unaware of their presence at the Chennai Port Trust complex early on Sunday.

All the four had loaded a consignment onto a truck on Saturday night. As it started raining, they went to sleep beneath the tipper lorry parked near the godown, police said.

The lorry driver started the vehicle and reversed it, without noticing that the labourers were sleeping under it.

Manikandan (26), Kareem alias Desappan (25) and Kannan (26) died on the spot. Another labourer Suresh was seriously injured and hospitalised. All the four hailed from Tondiarpet in north Chennai.

Fearing backlash, the tipper lorry driver abandoned the vehicle and fled the scene, police said.