Four suffocate to death after inhaling poisonous gases inside borewell in Nuh

Four men are suspected to have suffocated to death upon inhaling poisonous gases after entering a borewell on Saturday morning in Neemka village of Nuh, located around 100 kilometres from Gurugram, the police said. Results of the autopsies are awaited

Four men are suspected to have suffocated to death upon inhaling poisonous gases after entering a borewell on Saturday morning in Neemka village of Nuh, located around 100 kilometres from Gurugram, the police said. Results of the autopsies are awaited.

According to residents, two of the deceased had initially entered the borewell to repair it but they could not exit the well and are expected to have suffocated after inhaling poisonous gases. Two others who entered the borewell to rescue them also got stuck and died. The borewell was 12-15 feet deep. (Representative image/Getty Images & iStockphoto)

According to residents, two of the deceased, Jamshed (45) and Shahid (22), had initially entered the borewell to repair it but they could not exit the well. Two others who entered the borewell to rescue them also got stuck and died. The borewell was 12-15 feet deep, they said.

Shahid and Jamshed were cleaning the well and digging to push a pipe inside it. At one point, the pipe got stuck and Jamshed, who is a borewell mechanic, entered the narrow well. “A rope, which was used to climb down, was wet and it appears that the first person who went inside the well slipped and became unconscious due to poisonous gas. In order to rescue him, others also went inside but could not come out,” Talim Ahmed, a resident of Neemka and a high court lawyer, said.

When the first two persons failed to climb back up, two others, Zakir (25) and Yahya (19), also entered the well. “There was panic among the people after all the four persons failed to come out of the well. We feared the worst and no one else was ready to go inside. So, we used ropes and tools to get them outside the well. We rushed them to Civil Hospital in Punhana,” Arshad Hussain, a resident of Neemka, said.

According to the police, a preliminary investigation revealed that the borewell was built on a private farm outside the village and the motor used to pump out the water was not working. The landowner had called the workers to clean the well. Prima facie, it appears the four persons died due to suffocation but exact reasons will be known after postmortem, they said.

Narender Bijarniya, the superintendent of police for Nuh, said that the matter is under investigation and the initial probe reveals that the victims died due to suffocation. “We will get the exact reasons of death after post-mortem examination,” he said.

The bodies will be handed over after the autopsy, police said.