Bhubaneswar: In an unfortunate incident, three labourers working inside a water sump in Pandara area under Mancheswar Police limits here died due to lack of oxygen. The deceased have been identified as Samiran Munian, Basudev Mandal and Bhiguram Mandal, all stated to be residents of Medinipur area in West Bengal.
According to sources, the mishap took place at around 2 PM today when the trio was removing the centering of the water sump of an under-construction house. While there was not much water inside, lack of enough support to come out of the sump along with low oxygen levels led to the mishap, sources said.
Getting information about the mishap, Mancheswar Police and a team of fire personnel rushed to the spot and took the bodies out of the sump and sent them to the Capital Hospital for postmortem.
Though initially it was claimed that a 'false plaster' of the under-construction tank collapsed on them which led to their death, Sukanta Sethi, Chief Fire Officer, informed that the workers died of asphyxiation inside the water sump. “It is very unfortunate. From the preliminary reports, we ascertain it's a case of suffocation. They died due to lack of oxygen,” Sethi said.
"After I went to the spot, I alerted other co-workers spotting three persons inside the water sump. All of them had already died by the time we tried to rescue them," said Prasanta Patra, another worker who was engaged in the site. It was later found that all the labourers were engaged by a construction firm of West Bengal.
Meanwhile, Police have lodged a case of unnatural death and are inquiring whether any safety measures were taken by the house owner who had engaged the labourers.