Chennai: In a tragic incident, a man died of snake bite while cleaning the air-conditioned unit at his house in Pallaikkaranai here.
Police said Sridharan (66), who was living with his wife and two children in an apartment, opened the AC unit after a foul smell emanated from it and found a dead rat in it.
After removing it, he was cleaning the AC unit when a poisonous black cobra, which was coiled inside it, bit him twice in his hand.
As he was writhing in pain, he was rushed to a private hospital. As there was no medicine to treat the snake bite, he was rushed to Chrompet Government Hospital where he died despite best of treatment.
Acting on information, fire service personnel from Medavakkam rushed to the spot and caught the snake.
Fire service sources said the snake would have entered into the AC through a hole created for the AC pipe from a tree near the window because of heavy rains.