A barricade placed on the pavement on the old Cauvery bridge on after one of the slabs broke causing the death of a woman who fell down from the bridge at Tiruchi on Tuesday. | Photo Credit: M. Moorthy more-in Tragedy struck a 46-year -old woman, who was on a 'padayatra' to Samayapuram, when she fell down from the old Cauvery bridge along the Chennai Bypass Road after one of the slabs on the pavement broke in the late hours on Monday. The woman’s 20-year-old daughter who too fell while trying to rescue her mother suffered multiple injuries and is undergoing treatment at the Mahatma Gandhi Government Hospital here. The duo was among the thousands of people who were walking to the temple to fulfil their vows. Police identified the deceased as S. Lalitha, a resident of Venkateswara Nagar in Keelaambikapuram here. Lalitha along with her daughter Monica, younger sister Revathy and a few other relatives had embarked on a ‘padayatra’ to the Arulmigu Mariamman Temple at Samayapuram near Tiruchi on Monday night in connection with the Chithirai temple car festival on Tuesday. On Monday, the group was proceeding to Samayapuram. The group had taken the old Cauvery bridge route. Even as Lalitha was walking on the pavement of the 45-year-old bridge, one of the concrete slabs on the pavement which was apparently damaged, gave away. Lalitha, a widow, lost her balance and fell through the gap on to the dry river bed. “Her daughter Monica tried to rescue her mother and she also fell through the gap,” said R. Sridhar, a close relative of Lalitha.

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