Tragic gas leak claims nine in Chhattisgarh

Raipur | Correspondent: Nine people, including a father, his two sons, a father-daughter duo, and others, tragically died due to a poisonous gas leak inside wells in separate incidents in Janjgir-Champa and Korba districts of Chhattisgarh.

In the first incident, a 60-year-old Ramchandra Jaiswal resident of Kirkida village of Birra police station area around five in the morning entered inside the village well to retrieve the wooden visor that fell inside, succumbed to the toxic fumes losing consciousness.

Upon hearing this, distress wife shouted for help following which Jaiswal’s sons Rajendra and Jitendra entered the well to rescue faced the same situation of falling unconconsious.

Similarly the two neighbours who went for further help met the same tragic end.

Local authorities were alerted and police officials also reached the site. The State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) was called in to assist in retrieving the bodies, which have been sent for postmortem examination.

One of the deceased recently got married, after the incident the whole community is mourning. Bodies of the deceased would be handed over to the family after the autopsy.

Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai expressed deep sorrow and condolences over social media platform about the incident. Additionally, he announced compensation of Rs 5 lakh each for the affected families.

Meanwhile in an another incident that took place in Diprapara village of Jurali in Katghora of Korba, a villager named Jeharu fell into the well. Witnessing the incident his daughter bravely jumped in to rescue him.

As they emerged out of the well, two other members of the same family jumped in to save them suffered similar situation.

Tragically, all four individuals lost their lives. Local authorities suspect the cause to be poisonous gas inside the well.

Further investigations are underway to determine the exact cause of death.