A young man driving a new luxury car had a providential escape on Tuesday when the vehicle caught fire in a south Delhi locality. The accident led to a traffic jam for around an hour on the Delhi-Noida Direct (DND) flyover.
Police said Gagan Kalra, aged 20 and an MBA student at the Amity University in Noida, was driving the car, bought only five days ago, when it caught fire in the Maharani Bagh area at 4.40 p.m.
"A phone call about the fire damaging the car was received at the Sunlight Colony police station. A fire tender was rushed to the spot but the car was gutted by flames by the time firefighters reached there," a senior police officer told IANS.
Gagan, a resident of Kailash Colony in south Delhi, had not switched on the car's central locking system or else he could have been trapped and injured, the police officer said.
He said Gagan noticed fire emanating from the bonnet and immediately applied brakes to get out in time.
"I gifted the brand new Mercedes Benz-CLA-200 to my son Gagan, which cost over Rs 35 lakh. I cannot believe it caught fire," said car owner Bobby Kalra.
"The traffic jam extended up to four km from the Yamuna flyover on the DND route towards Delhi and took an hour to clear after a crane removed the gutted car to roadside," the officer added.
--IANS
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