National

Hot spell in Kolkata

Kolkata: A traffic constable of the Kolkata police, who died while on duty here on Tuesday, could well be the city’s first victim of sunstroke. The post-mortem report is awaited.

The city and some districts have been in the grip of a hot spell for the past few days. The temperature shot up to a maximum of 38.6 degree Celsius, three degrees above normal. The mercury had touched 39.6 degrees Celsius on Sunday — the highest to be recorded for the month in a decade, according to meteorological officials.

Akhilesh Kumar Rai, aged 58 years, was on duty in the morning at a kiosk for traffic policemen in the Manicktala area in the north of the city when he suddenly collapsed. He was taken to a local nursing home where he was pronounced dead.

The death could either have been caused by sunstroke or was the result of a heart attack, a senior official of the city police’s traffic department said.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu