Four die while trying to clean well

Vijayawada: Four workers died due to breathlessness when they entered the well to clean it one after the other to rescue their co-worker at Bantumilli in Krishna district on Friday.

According to Bantumilli police, four workers were engaged for cleaning a well located on the premises of the house of Konda Sivanagewara Rao at BNR Colony in the village. After clearing the water from the well, P. Srinivasa Rao entered the well with the help of a ladder to clear the mud. While doing so, he asked the workers waiting outside the well to pull him up as he was suffering breathlessness. As they were doing so, he left the rope and fell in the well. Fearing trouble, another worker V. Rama Rao entered the well and tried to pull Srinivasa Rao up but he too fell into the well unable to breathe properly. His son Lakshmana Rao tried to rescue his father and others by entering the well and he too fell down with the same reason.

Sensing trouble, the house owner’s wife Santa Kumari has raised an alarm as the workers one after the other were falling into the well to extend help to rescue them. Her son Ranga Rao took the ladder and tried to enter the well but he too suffered suffocation and fell into the well.

Locals rushed there and pulled them up but by that time all the four were dead.

Police booked a case and are investigating.