Garhwa: Four persons were suffocated to death in a septic tank in Jharkhand's Garhwa district on Friday, police said.
Three of the deceased were brothers, they said. The incident happened in Nawada village, DIG (Palamu Range) Naushad Alam told PTI.
The victims were identified as Ajay Chaudhary (50), Chandrashekhar Chaudhary (42), and Raju Shekhar Chaudhary (55), the brothers, and Maltu Ram, police said.
An investigation is underway, police said, adding that the bodies were sent for post-mortem examination.
Sub Divisional Officer of Garhwa Sanjay Kumar told PTI that it was a newly built septic tank, and the incident happened when one after the other, all four persons entered it to clean planks after removing shutterings.
All four were taken out with the help of villagers and rushed to the Garhwa Sadar Hospital where doctors declared them dead, he said.