Six die of suffocation in Orissa

BHUBANESWAR - Six people, including an engineer, died of asphyxiation Friday in two separate incidents in Orissa, police said.

Three people died in Bhubaneswar while three others died in Nuapada district.

In Bhubaneswar, some workers were engaged in maintenance work of sewerage manhole when the incident took place.

According to police, one worker entered into the sewerage manhole and did not return. Another worker and an engineer went inside the same manhole one after another and they too did not return.

After being informed by the local residents, the fire brigade personnel rushed to the spot, extricated them and sent them to a local hospital, where the doctors pronounced them dead.

In another incident, three people died while cleaning a water well at Barapadarpada village in Nuapada district, 546 km from here.

“Exposure to carbon monoxide and shortage of oxygen might have caused all the deaths,” a senior police officer said.