Four people, including three sanitation workers, were found dead inside a manhole in an IT hub of Hyderabad on Sunday. Civic officials suspect that toxic gases caused their death.
An employee of 108 Ambulance service, who tried to rescue them in Ayyappa society in upscale Madhapur area, fell ill after inhaling the poisonous gas, said police inspector R Kalinga Rao.
“The workers were cleaning the manhole. As three of them did not come out after entering, a local resident named Srinivas also climbed down to rescue them but he too did not come out,” the official said.
All four were found dead inside the manhole and their bodies were sent for post-mortem, Rao added.
Police said three unskilled workers, identified as Srinivas, Satyanarayana and Nagesh from Tarnaka, entered the manhole one after the other and died. A cab driver, identified as Gangadhar, who went to rescue them, also died.
Police said on Saturday the first worker entered the 25-foot manhole to clean it at 4.23 pm opposite Raju Cricket Academy at Ayyappa Society in Madhapur. The workers did not have any safety gear.
A Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation official said the four people might have died due to inhaling poisonous gases. Deputy mayor Fasiuddin and civic body officials rushed to the spot.
The 108 employee was rushed to hospital, Kalinga Rao said, adding police have yet to register a case in this regard.
Some workers alleged that the contractor used the services of unskilled labourers. They said no precautions were taken, resulting in the loss of four lives.
The GHMC’s west zone deputy commissioner Gangadaram Reddy said the incomplete sewerage connection works belonged to the Sewerage Board. It is the same trench where a pedestrian had died in June.” Cops have booked a negligence case against contractor G. K Infrastructure.
