In a tragic incident, four sanitation workers died of asphyxiation while cleaning a septic tank (harvesting tank) in Mehta Farm house in south Delhi's Ghittorni area on Saturday, police said.
Five men had gone down to clean the tank in a household in the area but did not come out for long. They were later pulled out in an unconscious state by fire department personnel after an hour-long operation at around 11 am in the morning.
It is suspected that they inhaled toxic gases inside the tank. Three of them were taken to the Fortis Hospital, while the other two were taken to the AIIMS Trauma Centre and the Safdarjung Hospital.
Doctors tried resuscitating the victims but unfortunately four workers, identified as Swarn Singh (45), Dipu (28), Anil (23) and Balwinder alias Billu (32), were declared brought dead.
Jaspal, Swarn Singh's son, is currently undergoing treatment at Fortis. All five victims are residents of Ambedkar Colony in Chhattarpur Pahari.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, South district, Ishwar Singh, said a case has been registered at Vasant Kunj (South) Police Station under sections of death due to negligence of the Indian Penal Code and investigations in the matter is being done from all angles.
Initial investigation into the incident has revealed that the death took place due to the presence of poisonous gas inside the tank, police said.
The senior police official, said the bodies have been sent for post-mortem after which the exact cause of death can be known.
According to police, eight persons had come to the farmhouse to clean the septic tank out of which five entered the tank but fell unconscious after sometime.
When the workers were not coming out for quite sometime, the other sanitation workers went to peep in the tank only to see them unconscious.
At 10 am a call was made to the police and a PCR van along with the fire department officials reached the spot immediately and rushed the victims to the respective hospitals.