THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a goodwill gesture, Congress president Rahul Gandhi today allowed an air ambulance with a patient to take off first before his helicopter did from a helipad at a college to Alappuzha .

Soon after boarding the helicopter at Chenganur Christian college , Gandhi noticed the air ambulance parked at the helipad and asked the SPG personnel about it.

They told him that it was to shift a patient with a cardiac problem from a relief camp at Chengannur to Alappuzha Medical College .

"Rahul then asked the SPG personnel to allow the air-ambulance to take off first and waited for 30 minutes to pave way for the air ambulance to fly first," Congress leader and former MLA P C Vishunath said.

Gandhi arrived in Kerala on a two-day visit this morning and spoke to people at relief camps, days after the deadliest deluge in the last 100 years left a trail of destruction and claimed 474 lives in rain-related incidents since May 29 when the monsoon set in over the state

