Five people died due to suspected inhalation of toxic gas inside a well in Chhattisgarh’s Janjgir-Champa district today (July 5), police said. The incident occurred on Wednesday morning in Kikirda village under the Birra police station area. The deceased have been identified as Ramchandra Jaiswal, Ramesh Patel, Rajendra Patel, Jitendra Patel and Tikeshwar Chandra, Inspector General of Police (Bilaspur Range) Sanjeev Shukla said.
As per the preliminary information, Jaiswal entered the well to take out a wooden strip after it fell into it. When he fainted, his family member shouted for help following which three others from the Patel family entered the water body, he said. When all four did not come out, Chandra entered the well but he also became unconscious, following which locals alerted police, the official said. A team of State Disaster Response Forces (SDRF) has been roped in to fish out the bodies from the well, Shukla said. “Prima facie it seems that they died after inhaling some poisonous gas inside the well,” he said, adding that further probe is underway.