Ghaziabad sewer deaths: For an hour, locals and cops tried in vain to save them

Five workers died after inhaling poisonous gases inside an under-construction manhole at Krishna Kunj Colony in Ghaziabad on Thursday afternoon.

The locals from Krishna Kunj and Sihani localities behind Nandgram tried their best to retrieve the five workers who went inside the manhole and asphyxiated to death around 1.25pm Thursday. The rescue operation by locals and later by police lasted for about an hour and every possible effort was made to save the men.

Residents near Nandgram locality and police tried to rescue the men for nearly an hour. They used ropes and belts to pull them out, but the victims were declared dead on arrival at the hospital. (Sakib Ali / HT Photo)

“I was at my shop and heard someone shouting that some workers had fallen inside the manhole. People were crowding around the manhole and they called workers from nearby sites to help them. I also ran and saw that Vijay Kumar was the last one who went inside to retrieve the four workers from the manhole,” said Rajbir Singh, whose house is located barely 15 feet away from the incident site.

“I rushed with my table fan and put it near the manhole so that the poisonous gases could be blown away. We also opened several nearby manholes so that the fumes could escape and give the men a chance to breathe. But it was of no help. All five men were trapped and we all could see them lying inside at a depth of about 15-18 feet. There was no way for anyone to go in and pull them out,” he said.

Later, the residents got out plastic water pipes from their houses and a cart owner used belts to pull the men out.

“The opening of the manhole is hardly two feet in diameter. There was hardly any sunlight but we could see them inside. I saw them lying one over the other. Jitendra Yadav and one other man climbed down the manhole. They reached the bottom of the manhole within 10-15 minutes,” Vikrant Pandit, a resident, said.

“We used ropes and pipes and belts to pull up the victims one by one. In the meantime, the police and the fire department personnel also arrived to help us. One by one, the men were pulled up through the small opening and rushed to the nearby hospital,” he said.

However, the doctors declared the five men dead on arrival.

“For an initial one and half hours, we were clueless about their identities. Then Jitendra took us to their colleague and he went to the mortuary and identified the five victims. Vijay Kumar was the head worker who had roped in the others. He had also called his brother-in-law Shiv Kumar about a week ago to carry out the drainage work. They all hailed from Samastipur in Bihar,” said Shlok Kumar, superintendent of police (city).

“We are expecting that their relatives in Delhi will arrive by Thursday night while their families will start from their native places and reach Ghaziabad in a day or two,” he said.