Five die of suffocation in septic tank in Chhattisgarh

Five persons, including a woman, died Sunday of suspected asphyxiation in a septic tank at a house in Chhattisgarh's Jashpur district, police said.

Two sanitation workers climbed down into the septic tank in Pandripani village, located around 450 km from here, to remove wooden planks, but they did not come out, a local police official said.

Subsequently, two more persons went inside but they too did not come out following which the house owner's wife climbed down into the newly-built septic tank, he said.

When none of them came out, a child from the neighbourhood alerted the villagers who rushed to the spot, he said.

The five were later pulled out of the septic tank and taken to a local hospital where they were declared dead, the official said.

The deceased were identified as Savitri (45), Badu Tam (60), Paramjeet Paikra (19), Ramjeevan Ram (35) and Ishwar Sai (40), he said.

Prime facie, it is suspected that they died of suffocation, he said. However, the exact cause of their deaths will be known in the autopsy report, he added.

A case was registered in connection with the incident, he said.