Three die while cleaning sewer in Kanpur

Kanpur, April 12 (IANS) Three labourers cleaning a sewer were killed here Thursday as poisonous gas leaked during the cleaning operation.

The tragedy took place at Fazalganj in the city when labourers were deployed to clean up a sewer line in the area, informed C.L.P. Gupta, Project Engineer of the Ganga Pollution Control Board.

The cleaning of the sewer line was undertaken by a Ghaziabad based company and the deceased were labourers who were brought from Bijnor. Under the contract the labourers were cleaning the sewer line near Jareeb Chowki on the busy Kalpi road. The young labourers had gone down into the sewer and got suffocated due to the noxious fumes inside.

Police said the bodies of the three have been sent for autopsy while a fourth labourer has been admitted to a local medical facility where his condition is stated to be serious but out of danger.