Four die of asphyxiation

Sundergarh: In a tragic incident, four members of a family died of asphyxiation and two others fell seriously ill following the leakage of gas from a generator running inside a room at Dhutidhipa village of Balishankara block in Odisha’s Sundargarh district late on Sunday night.

Reports said there was a marriage function at Dhutidhipa village on Sunday night. As there was no electricity in the village, the family members had hired a diesel generator for the marriage function. After the function was over, the tired family members had gone asleep while six of them slept inside the room where the generator was kept.

As the door and the windows of the room were closed, the gas emitted by the generator could not find an outlet and spread inside the room. As a result, all six members sleeping inside the room went breathless and fell unconsious.

Early this morning, family members had gone to wake them up. When there was no response, they broke open the door and found all of them lying unconscious. They were rushed to the Balishankara PHC, which referred to them the district headquarters hospital in Sundargarh where four persons succumbed to their illness.