Five die after inhaling toxic gas inside well in Chhattisgarh

NEW DELHI: Five people died after inhaling toxic gas inside a well in Chhattisgarh's Janjgir-Champa district, on Friday morning.

The victims were Ramchandra Jaiswal, Ramesh Patel, Rajendra Patel, Jitendra Patel, and Tikeshwar Chandra.

The incident started when Jaiswal entered the well to retrieve a wooden strip that had fallen in. When he did not come out and appeared to have fainted, his family member called for help. In response, three members from the Patel family entered the well but did not return either. Chandra followed them in an attempt to rescue, but he too became unconscious.


Inspector General of Police (Bilaspur Range) Sanjeev Shukla said, "Prima facie it seems that they died after inhaling some poisonous gas inside the well." He added that a State Disaster Response Forces (SDRF) team was involved in fishing out the bodies from the well.

Local police were alerted when all five individuals failed to exit the well. Further investigation into the cause of the incident is ongoing.