Three labourers working in a water sump of an under-construction house in the Pandara area under the Mancheswar police station here died due to asphyxiation on Friday.
The deceased were identified as Samiran Munian, Basudev Mandal and Digaram Mandal, all residents of Medinipur district in West Bengal.
Sources said that the mishap took place in the afternoon when the labourers were removing the centering of the water sump. While there was very less water inside, lack of enough support to come out of the sump along with low oxygen levels led to the tragedy.
Getting information about the mishap, the Mancheswar police rushed to the spot and recovered the bodies and sent them for postmortem.
A Fire Service official said the workers died of asphyxiation in the water sump. “They died due to lack of oxygen,” he added.
Police began investigating whether any safety measures were taken by the house owner, who had engaged the labourers.