A 48-year-old Sri Lankan Tamil settled in Chennai killed his mother, wife and daughter by slitting their throats before committing suicide by jumping in front of a suburban train near Pazhavanthangal on Tuesday morning. His friends said the man was in debt.

C Sundaresan came to Chennai from Sri Lanka 30 years ago and was settled in Thillai Ganga Nagar near Adambakkam. He ran a travel agency and owned two cars. He was also involved in buying imported goods and selling them here. He had suffered losses in the business, his friends told TOI.

On Monday he took his family to a theme park and later to a temple and returned home. Around 4am he slit the throat of his mother Thangamma, 70, and then that of his wife Chitra, 48. His daughter Tamira, 13, resisted his attempt to kill her after which he stabbed her eight times.

He left the door of the house open and went to the railway tracks near the Pazhavanthangal railway station and flung himself in front of suburban train plying between Tambaram and Beach. The Government Railway Police found a mobile phone near the body and called the last called number. The person who attended the call identified the owner of the phone and gave police his address. The police team which went to Sundaresan's first floor apartment found the door open and the bodies lying in a pool of blood