The three workers including the 16-year-old boy died in Silchar (Assam) while cleaning a drinking water reservoir tank of the Public Health and Engineering (PHE) department on Friday.
According to the officials, all three died of suffocation due to smoke created by an electric generator inside the 12-foot deep reservoir.
The deceased were identified as Salim Uddin Laskar, Nazim Uddin Mazumdar, and Samsul Alom Mazumder. Salim Laskar died inside the reservoir while the other two were declared dead at the Silchar Medical College and Hospital.
Tapan Sarma from the PHE department’s Silchar division said that their initial investigation revealed the presence of gas inside the reservoir tank, but they were not sure how it was generated.
He said, “This is an old reservoir tank and we outsourced the reconstruction work to an agency named Binni construction. They used some laborers but we believe there were security laps somewhere which led to the unfortunate death of three individuals. Police are investigating the matter and more information will come later.”
Soon after the incident, the officials of the Cachar district administration along with a team of disaster management authorities rushed to the spot.
However, Biprojit Choudhary from the Disaster Management Authority said that the locals called them around 4 pm on Friday after they rescued two unconscious individuals from the tank.
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