India: Man commits suicide due to coronavirus

A father who wrongly believed he had the coronavirus threw stones at his family to keep them away from him and then hanged himself so they wouldn't catch the deadly virus in India. 

Bala Krishna's grieving relatives said he had obsessively watched videos on his phone about the spread of the disease before becoming convinced he had the virus.

The 50-year-old farmer then locked his wife and children in their home in Andhra Pradesh's Chittoor district before hanging himself from a tree near his mother's grave.

His son Bala Murali said his father took himself to the general hospital in Tirumala on Wednesday last week after being ill for several days and diagnosed with a viral fever.

But he remained convinced he had the disease and urged his family to keep their distance.

When they tried to approach him, he pelted them with stones and shooed them away.

Bala Murali: "My father watched Coronavirus-related videos the whole day on Monday and kept saying he had similar symptoms."