Two labourers, identified as Ganesh Manna and Subrata Das, died after entering a septic tank in a house in West Bengal’s Hooghly district on Saturday. Police said the workers, aged around 40 years, had come to remove the construction plank inside the septic tank in the house, which was built around three months ago, reported news agency PTI. According to police, housewife Chandana Maiti said one of the workers entered the tank after opening the lid and was followed by the other worker later.
Police were quoted as saying by PTI: "The two workers had come to remove a construction plank inside the septic tank in a house in Singur’s Ratanpur village. The tank was built two to three months ago.”
Notably, one of the workers entered the septic tank when he did not get any response from the first worker inside. However, the police said they both died there. "When he did not get any response from his colleague after waiting for a few minutes, he too entered the tank. But none of them came out," said the police.
Soon after the incident, fire brigade officers and police personnel pulled the workers out of the septic tank and took them to a nearby hospital. However, the doctor declared them brought dead. Meanwhile, the police have launched an investigation into the matter.
Notably, an officer from the fire brigade suspected that methane gas could have accumulated inside the tank, which could reason for workers’ deaths. Methane is a colourless and odourless gas, which can prove to be deadly.
In a separate incident that took place on Saturday, a daily wage earner, who was caused pf theft, died under police custody in Murshidabad. Later, the incident also resulted in protests by residents in the area, reported PTI. The police were forced to fire tear gas shells to disperse the crowd.