Sri Lankan teenager killed after brawl at Chennai bar
June 1, 2026 02:34 pm
A bar brawl spilled onto the road with a group of youth crashing their car into a bike, killing an 18-year-old Sri Lankan Tamil woman and critically injuring her 17-year-old female friend near Thirumangalam in the city late on Saturday night.
Police said the deceased, Yancy , and five women friends went on three twowheelers to a star hotel at Koyambedu on Saturday night. They drank and danced at the pub.
A group of young men who had arrived in a car joined the celebrations. An altercation broke out between the two groups and soon escalated into a physical confrontation. Security personnel intervened and escorted the two groups out of the premises.
The dispute, however, continued outside the hotel, where both sides were involved in another heated argument and assault. Bouncers again dispersed the groups before the bar closed for the night.
As Yancy and her friends rode towards Thirumangalam on their two-wheelers, the rival group followed them in a car, said police. During the chase, Yancy threw a stone at the car, damaging it. The occupants then accelerated and rammed the twowheeler.
‘My daughter wanted to study fashion design abroad’
The impact threw Yancy and the 17-year-old girl off the vehicle. Yancy suffered head injuries and died on the spot, while the teenager was admitted to Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital, where she remains in critical condition.
The suspects fled immediately. Based on CCTV camera footage and vehicle registration details, police arrested four people — Balaguru, Suman, Sakthivel and another accomplice — and seized the car.
Yancy is a resident of the Sri Lankan Tamil Rehabilitation Camp at Ariyankuppam in Villupuram and had completed Class XII last year. She had recently come to Chennai to visit her 17-year-old friend whom she had met online.
Yancy’s mother, Mary Stella, said her daughter last spoke to her around 7.50pm on Saturday and told her that she and her friend were going out. She ended the call saying she would speak to her mother again in the morning. A few hours later, however, Mary got a call from the police informing her that Yancy had died. “My daughter wanted to study fashion designing and go abroad. Now she is gone. I want justice for my daughter,” Mary said.
Police are probing the sequence of events inside the bar that triggered the clash. Efforts are on to trace Yancy’s friends who were present during the incident. Following the incident, police have sealed the bar.
Source: Times of India
--Agencies
