Sunday's excitement of being witness to India's air capability at close quarters during the 92nd Indian Air Force Day celebration on the Marina Beach turned tragic for five families when they began their journey home.

Little did they realise that walking for some distance from the sandy beach to reach their two-wheelers parked on the road would cost them dear.

"My husband asked me to wait with our two-and-a-half year old kid at the entrance to the beach where we remained stationed for about an hour and a half and watched the air show," the wife of Karthikeyan, 34, of Thiruvottiyur, here, said.

Seeing the massive crowd on the beach, the family decided not to get anywhere close to the venue and watched the IAF's aerobatic skills from further away.

"At 1.30 pm he said he would be back with his bike in ten minutes to pick us up. But he did not return even after two hours and his mobile phone kept ringing constantly," she said.

At 3.30 pm someone answered and told her that her husband vomited and lay near his bike, she said. With the help of a policeman she walked to the Napier Bridge only to find her husband lying still.

He was taken to a government hospital in an ambulance but was declared brought dead by the doctors, she said and claimed that he could have been saved had there been a policeman near the Napier bridge.

"There were ambulances lined up on the road close by, but strangely none of the medical staff or passers-by noticed my husband swooning," she said.

Similar was the case of John, 56, of Kurukkupet. He apparently fainted as he walked up to his bike, after he was exposed to the intense heat during the two hours display.

"I tried to revive him ... we found difficulty in getting an ambulance promptly. But by the time he was rushed to the Omandurar government hospital, doctors there said he had already died," she said.

Police identified the other deceased as Srinivasan of Perungalathur, Dhinesh Kumar of Kurnool, and Mani of Marakkanam.

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