Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister and actor Pawan Kalyan spoke to the media on Tuesday after his son, Mark Shankar Pawanovich, was injured in a fire accident at a summer camp in Singapore.

“Mark went to a summer camp in Singapore. My wife got the phone call that there was a fire accident. I thought it was a small fire, but I didn’t expect it to be this huge. I didn’t realise the intensity and seriousness of the incident,” Pawan Kalyan said.

The fire broke out in the River Valley Shophouse area in Singapore, which houses multiple educational institutions. According to the Singapore Civil Defence Force, over 80 people were rescued, and 20 were hospitalised, including 15 children. A 10-year-old girl died during treatment.

Pawan added, “Mark is getting a bronchoscopy because smoke got into his lungs. He also has burns on his hands and his legs. It’s very tragic news. A student sitting beside him got third-degree burns. Even a kid passed away in the accident. It’s a painful incident.”

He also reflected on the coincidence of the incident occurring on his elder son Akira’s birthday. “It’s a strange coincidence. Today it’s my elder son’s birthday and on the same day, the youngest one went through this.”

Pawan Kalyan was on an official tour in Andhra Pradesh’s Alluri Sitarama Raju district at the time. He is expected to fly to Singapore from Visakhapatnam after completing his tour. Mark Shankar, born in 2017, is the second child of Pawan Kalyan and his wife Anna Lezhneva.