4-yr-old dies of snakebite

Mantralayam: A four-year-old boy died of snakebite at the entrance gate of Guru Raghavendra Swamy math in Mantralayam in Kurnool district on Friday.

Sources said that Guru Datta had come with his mother Archana from Dubai to attend a marriage in Mantralayam, their native place, on Thursday.

On Friday, the mother and son duo had come for darshan of Guru Raghavendra Swamy Brindavanam. They entered from the 7th gate and when they were proceeding towards the Moola Brindavanam, the boy saw a snake near the hundi and informed his mother, but she did not pay much attention.

The boy then tried to catch the snake, which bit his finger, and escaped into a hole. Archana saw the injury on the boys fingers and thinking that it had happened while he was playing, simply rubbed it with a piece of paper to stop the bleeding.

After darshan, they returned home where Guru Datta fell unconscious. Family members shifted the boy to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him brought dead.

When the information of the snakebite reached them, the math authorities stopped darshan for a few hours and started searching for the snake at the spot where the incident had taken place.

They also removed the silver covering near the hundi but could not trace the snake they then packed the holes in the math premises to stop any snakes from entering.