Couple has miraculous escape after car falls into well in Ernakulam

Kochi: It was a Puja holiday that newly-married couple Karthik and Vismaya will never forget as they got a second life, escaping unhurt after their car fell into a roadside well in Kerala's Ernakulam district. The well was around 15 feet deep and had five feet of water.

It was just two months back the two got married and with the three-day Puja holidays beginning, Karthik, who works at the state-run Medical College and Hospital in the state capital, while Vismaya is a student in agriculture, had taken leave to go home.

Late on Friday, the couple was driving from Kottarakara - the home town of Vismaya - to Aluva from where Karthik hails when the accident occurred near Kolencherry in Ernakulam.

Talking to IANS, Karthik said: "We were driving from her home town to mine at Aluva. This accident took place when our car lost control after hitting a dip in the road, moved off the road, hit a panchayat well on the roadside, broke its side walls and plunged into the well."

Eyewitness Chakkapan said that it was around 9.20 p.m. when the incident took place. "The place is a crossroad and there is a big dip... the young couple's vehicle lost control when they could not identify the dip because it was filled with water. The car then moved forward as it went out of control and hit the side wall of the well about 30 meters from the dip and fell into it," he said.

"Soon hearing the sound, those standing in and around the junction came running and the rescue began," Chakkapan said.

Another local, Mary and her son came running to the spot and she went back and got a ladder. "We put the ladder into the well and by then, Karthik had taken out Vismaya and put her on the top of the car and the two came up the ladder," Mary said.

"Our vehicle has been totally destroyed but thanks to God, we both did not suffer any injuries and apart from the mental agony, we are fine," Karthik said, adding that it was a miraculous escape.

IANS