In a ghastly incident, an 8-year-old boy was crushed to death by an elevator in Karmanghat, Hyderabad on Sunday.

The boy, identified as Cholangi Venkata Tashwanth and a resident of Satya Sai Apartment in Durga Nagar, was playing in the cellar of the apartment building. He peeped into the pit below the elevator when the it was descending, and died as his head got crushed by it, reported Deccan Chronicle.

The incident occurred in the morning when Tashwanth was playing with the elevator with his younger brother, Srinath. During the incident, the boy’s father, who works as the watchman in the same apartment was washing cars.

 “Srinath pressed the elevator button and as the car was hurtling down, Tashwanth thrust his head out into the partially open portion of the elevator shaft to watch the descending lift. The elevator car crushed Tashwanth’s head and he bled to death,” told Saroornagar Inspector S Lingaiah to The Times of India.  

He was stuck between the parapet wall and the elevator, heavily injuring his skull.  Police said that there were no safety grills surrounding the lift, which could have averted the incident. The boy was studying Class II in a local school. His father Srinivasa was the watchman of the apartment, while his mother works as a domestic help, TOI reported.

According to DC, the residents of the apartment heard a loud cry around 8.30am after which they rushed to the cellar. However, they didn’t know where the noise came from. Later, they noticed blood near the lift and saw that Tashwanth was stuck between the lift with his head crushed.

While the parents refused to file a case, as they didn’t want their child to be mutilated, the police convinced them and the body was sent to Osmania General Hospital. Police later filed a case under section 174 of crpc (death under suspicious circumstances).